(Jill Watts) Mae West An Icon in Black and White (BookFi)

Mae
Westt
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MaeM Westt
An Icon in Black and White
J I L L WATTS
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York

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Copyright © 2001 by Jill Watts
First published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001

First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 2003
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic,' mechanical,' photocopying,
r rj o' recording,o' or otherwise,'
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Watts, Jill.
Mae West : an icon in Black and white / Jill Watts.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-510547-8 (cloth) ISBN 0-19-516112-2 (pbk.)
1. West, Mae.
2. West, Mae—Relations with Afro-Americans.
3. Motion picture actors and actresses—United States—Biography.
I. Title.
PN2287.W4S66 W39 2001
791.43'028'092—dc21 [B] 00-023182
135798642
Printed in the United States of America

on acid-free paper
* To *
Thomas and Doris Watts,
Donald, Rebecca, and Sarah Woo,
and
Wally
Contents
Acknowledgments
o
ix
One They Were Too Smart 3
Two The Way She Does It 27
Three Shimadonna ô
Four Speaking of the Influence 70

of the Jook
Five You Can Be Had 93
Six The Subject of the Dream 118
Seven Good Night
o
to the Dichotomies 143
'-J
Eight If You Can't Go Straight, 170

You've Got to Go Around
Nine Naturally I Disagree 19 8

Ten Bring
o
Me Rabelais 226
Eleven A Glittering Facsimile 2 ^4
Twelve I Had Them All 282
Thirteen I Wrote the Story Myself 30^
Fourteen Really a Prologue 316
Sources
Archival Sources and Abbreviations 3 19
Notes 3 2i
Bibliographical Essay 3^7
Index 363
Acknowledgmentsk
This project came together with the generous support of Cornell Univer-
sity's Society for the Humanities Fellowship. My thanks to the society's
director, Dominick LaCapra, and the fellows, including Linda Alcoff, Gary
Okihiro, Nellie Fur man, Martin Bernal, and, especially, Lois Brown. Grate-
ful acknowledgment goes to others in the Cornell community including
Linda Allen, Joan Brumberg, Jackie Goldsby, Michael Kammen, Mary Beth
Norton, Cybele Raver, and Rachael Weil.
I have also benefited from guidance from Ed Reynolds, Alex Saxton,
Richard Yarborough, Richard Weiss, Vivian Sobcheck, and Edward D. C.
O 7
' *
Campbell. I owe much thanks to Margaret Washington for her support

throughout the years. Richard Newman has been a consistent champion and
mentor. I am grateful for the support and advice from Diana Brooking, Gary
Campbell, Michael Fitzgerald, Lynne Harvey, Bob Kaplan, Monte Kugal,
Judy Kutulas, Valerie Matsumoto, Monica McCormick, Regina Morantz-
Sanchez, Peggy Pascoe, Ellen Slatkin, and Nan Yamane.
7
OOy
Support from California State University, San Marcos, has also been in-
strumental. I am grateful to David Avalos, Nancy Caine, Jeff Charles, Ann
Elwood, Glee Foster, Joan Gundersen, Peggy Hashemipour, Linda Shaw, and
Zhiwei Xiao. I am thankful for the support of the students in my classes at
California State University, San Marcos; Weber State University; and Cor-
nell University. Those who have worked as research assistants include Pam
Cronkhite, Shane Ebert, and Bertha Walker. Jillian Martin helped me com-
plete research (in freezing weather) in New York City.
I owe a special thanks to the following: Howard Prouty, Margaret Herrick
Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Ned Corn-
stock, Performing Arts Archives at the University of Southern California;
Matt Ker, British Film Institute; Robert A. McCown, Special Collections,
University of Iowa, Iowa City; Elizabeth Dunn, Hartman Center for Sales,
Advertising, and Marketing History; Maryann Clach, Shubert Archives; and
Simon Elliot, Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles. I
am also thankful to the librarians at California State University, San Marcos,
and Cornell University's Olin Library.
IX
X A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
Additionally, I am grateful to my former editors Liz McGuire and T. Susan

Chang. This manuscript was initially much longer, and those who saw it
through the final process include Joellyn Ausanka, Ellen Chodosh, Elissa
Morris, and Russell Perreault. I also owe much thanks to India Cooper for
her excellent copyediting and kindness.
I have been fortunate to have unfailing support from my family as I have
worked on this project over the last eight years. My parents, Torn and Doris
Watts, and my sister and brother-in-law, Becky and Don Woo, gave many
hours of their time to helping me complete this book. (Wally, the shelter
dog, came into the project about halfway through and has spent many patient
hours under my desk.) But this book would not be what it is without my fa-
ther's influence. He passed away just after the book went out for copyedit-
ing. Our family will forever mourn his loss. However, just as the copyediting
came back, we were blessed with a new member, Sarah Marie Woo. Sarah,
my father's first grandchild, reminds us that, like the bountiful vegetable gar-
den he loved to tend, the future always holds something beautiful.
Quoted material authored by Mae West is reprinted by permission from the

Receivership Estate of Mae West. All rights reserved. Represented by the
Roger Richman Agency, Inc., Beverly Hills, California.
Mae*
* West
* O * N * E *
They Were Too Smart
Mrs. Crane Brittany: Have your ancestors ever been traced?

Cleo Borden: Well—yes. But they were too smart. They
couldn't catch 'em.
—Mae West as Cleo Borden, Coin' to Town, 1935
n the early 19705, rumors circulated that after Mae West's death, her
I deepest secret would be revealed publicly for the first time. A few wa-
gered someone would finally verify that the celebrated symbol of
brazen female sexuality was not really a woman but a man. Others
speculated that a source would confirm that West had African-American
roots, that one of her ancestors had passed for white. Mae toyed with those
bolder journalists who confronted her with the persistent rumors that she
was a man, and when one writer, John Kobal, questioned her on her racial
background and preference for the blues, she admitted only that "her affinity
for black music was because it's the best there is." But all those who antici-
pated a bombshell at her death were to be eventually disappointed. In 1980,
at the age
O
of eighty-seven,
O J '
Mae West died and was buried with the secrets
that she was believed to have so carefully guarded throughout her life.'
Mae West's death certificate, signed by a physician and an undertaker,
confirms that she was all woman. It is more difficult to rule out the possibil-
ity that she had African-American ancestry. While three of her four grand-
parents were undisputedly European born, the ethnicity of her paternal
grandfather, John Edwin West, is harder to pinpoint. He first appears in
public records only after the Civil War, in 1866, when the Manhattan city di-
rectory shows him living on the Lower East Side, one block from the notori-
ous Bowery.
The one sure fact about John Edwin West is that he had been a seafarer—
a rigger
oo who worked on whaling oships.
r The rest of his background
o remains a
mystery. His recorded birth date varied between 1819 and 1830; his birth-
3
4 AE W ST MAE* WEST
places diverged widely and included New York, Maine, Newfoundland, and
even England.
O
His death certificate indicated that he arrived in New York in
18 21, at the age of two, and that his parents were named John and Edith, but
there is nothing to corroborate this or to confirm where John Edwin West re-
ally spent his young life. Perhaps, like other working-class people, he remained
undocumented by a society focused on the elite and privileged. But he may
have also evaded record keepers, purposefully obscuring his background.
Mae West often declared that her ograndfather had come from a longo line
of John Wests. For visitors, she proudly displayed a genealogy of a West
family, mainly from Virginia and purported to have descended from Alfred
the Great. This impressive lineage may have been more a public projection
than a private admission; West often exaggerated or embellished her per-
sonal history. Still, these accounts not only offered glimpses into her self-
perceptions but almost always were grounded in an element of truth. She
frequently provided significant verifiable information on her family—with
the exception of John Edwin West, the only grandparent for whom she vol-
unteered no information on background or origins. Perhaps this vagueness
was intentional, explicable if John Edwin, or one of his forebears, had es-
caped bondage and passed for white. Many enslaved African-American
sailors took advantage of their mobility and escaped north; some of those
who were light-skinned passed. While no documents substantiate that John
Edwin did, similarly none prove that he did not. But his nebulous back-
ground, the reality that ô percent of those serving on whaling vessels were
black, and his absence in public records until slavery's end suggest that it was
possible. Even his wife and children were uncertain about or unwilling to
2
discuss his origins,
o J often giving conflicting information about his past.
o o o r
Whatever his background, of all of her grandparents, John Edwin made
the strongest impression on Mae, who found him a fascinating storyteller of
maritime adventures. Mae remembered him as healthy and vigorous. He
must have been, for only the most able-bodied seamen had the strength and
agility to work clipper ships' towering masts and endure gruelingly long
whaling voyages. She also insisted that despite his long career on the rough
seas, John Edwin was a pious man. A devout Methodist, he fell to his knees
in prayer at each meal and at the end of family visits. She also told how in his
advanced years he proudly showed off a near-perfect set of teeth, missing
only one that he had decided to pull himself.
Despite his enigmatic early years, later records show that in 18^2 John Ed-
win took a wife, a twelve-year-old Irish Catholic immigrant named Mary Jane
Copley. The daughter of Julia (nee Copple) and Martin Copley, Mary Jane
had come to the United States in 1848, joining thousands who fled Ireland
THEY WERE TOO SMART 5
during the potato famine. At the age of fifteen, she bore a daughter, Edith,
who was probably born in Brooklyn.3
The West family initially remained small. Although Mary Jane eventually
bore eleven children, she lost five in infancy. Her second healthy child was
the hearty and spunky John Junior, who was born in March of 1866, over ten
years after his older sister. Known as Jack, he was born in his parents' home
on the Lower East Side. An early photograph of him shows a determined
toddler with wavy black hair and steely eyes gazing steadily into the camera.
Jack West came into a turbulent world. A year before his birth, the Civil
War ended and President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. His father did
not serve in the conflict; sailors were needed to keep northern commerce
flowing. But everyone in Manhattan was affected by the war, which left the
city's economy in ruins. Particularly hard hit were impoverished sectors like
the Lower East Side, where residents, ravaged by smallpox, cholera, ty-
phoid, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, were crowded into dilapidated tene-
ments. Between i 866 and 1870, the Wests lived in several locations in this
area, finally settling in a tenement with eight other families near Tompkins
Square Park. They subsisted on John Edwin's wages and whatever Edith, the
oldest daughter,
o '
now workingo as a seamstress,' could earn.
Jack West spent his formative years on the Lower East Side's rough
streets surrounded by poverty, despair, and crime. Powerful gangs controlled
the neighborhoods; their influence became so strong that it eventually ex-
tended over the city government and police. Their violent exploits were leg-
endary, and many Lower East Side boys regarded notorious gang leaders as
heroes. At some point, Jack must have joined a gang, for as writer Luc Sante
observes, they were "the basic unit of social life among young males in New
York during the nineteenth century." Beginning in childhood, Jack found
himself suspended between the honest hardworking poor and the unruly
Lower East Side gangs.4
Mae remembered her father as outgoing and, at times, gregarious with a
wide assortment of friends and acquaintances. But slum life's insecurities
and poverty hardened him. A small, wiry youth, he was feisty and strong,
and on the streets and in the alleys, he learned to fight. Mae remembered
her father boastingo that even as a child "he'd rather fight
o
than eat." While he
could be personable, according to Mae, he was "always ready to do physical
violence when the urge was on him." Easily angered, he had a fiery temper.
"Oh, my father was cruel, you know," she recalled in 1969. "But later, I real-
5
ized all his fighting
o o was done doingo other people's
r r fighting
o to for them."
In addition to his immersion in a culture of violence, Jack also confronted
festering ethnic and racial bigotry. Nineteenth-century New York City be-
6 * MAE * WEST
came home to peoples of many races, ethnicities, and nationalities. Deep di-
vides developed, and hostilities sometimes spilled over into violent clashes.
These tensions were promoted and augmented by the dominant culture's
denigration of anyone who failed to fit the mold of white Protestant Victo-
rian America. Jack West, even if his father was not African-American, must
have experienced some of the bruising effects of the ethnic prejudice di-
rected at Irish Catholics. White Anglo-Saxon
o
Protestants defined the Irish as
a separate, nonwhite race, disparaging them as "savage/'"bestial," and "lazy,"
degrading stereotypes strikingly parallel to those thrust upon African Amer-
icans. And while Irish Americans attempted to claim whiteness, throughout
the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, prejudice against them re-
mained constant. In a sense, the dominant culture pressured Jack West and
his family to "pass," to deny their heritage and seek inclusion in the white and
Protestant Victorian middle class. This struggle with white identity com-
bined with poverty's entrapment could only have served to heighten Jack's
frustrations and combative spirit.6
In 1873, when Jack was seven, the Wests left the Lower East Side for
Brooklyn. They may have been drawn there by Martin Copley, who with a
brother, William, operated a gardening and floral business. By this point,
John Edwin and Mary Jane's family included two more daughters, Julia and
Emma. They first settled in Red Hook, on the waterfront, but within a year
they moved again, this time to Brooklyn's Greenpoint district. In direct con-
trast with the Lower East Side's impacted slums, Greenpoint in the i 8705
remained somewhat rural, and open fields surrounded houses and busi-
nesses. There Mary Jane gave birth to two more boys, Edwin and William.
By 1882, the Wests were able to rent their own home. But heartbreak soon
followed: the next year, Emma, aged twelve, was lost to rheumatic fever.
Although the quality of life in Greenpoint may have been better overall,
the Wests always struggled. Steam power rendered John Edwin's skills as a
rigger obsolete; he eventually found work as a janitor. To make ends meet,
the family took in boarders; as the oldest son, Jack was expected to help out.
Mae often bragged that he owned a livery stable, but more likely as a youth
he drove rigs for the local transit company whose stables and car barns were
directly across the street from his home. By 1880, his father had apprenticed
him to learn boilermakinp, cv
a hard but honest trade.7
But John Edwin's spirited son had already set his sights on another calling.
At the age of eleven, the sturdy youth fought in his first boxing match. From
that point on, Jack aspired to become a bare-knuckle prizefighting cham-
pion. It was a dangerous ambition, for boxing of this era was a deadly sport
with unlimited rounds that ended only with a concession or knockout. Al-
though small, Jack was muscular and fierce, fighting as a featherweight. Re-
portedly, after he retired from the ring, he entertained Coney Island crowds
by fighting and beating any challenger.
Mae insisted that her father was known around Brooklyn as "Battling
Jack." His moniker probably derived more from victorious street brawls than
triumphs in the ring, for Battling Jack never held a title, at least not an offi-
cial one. New York strictly regulated prizefighting, and championship bouts
were difficult to secure. This drove unknown pugilists, like Jack, to fight un-
derground, in illegal matches secretly arranged by local racketeers.8
Sometime in the late 188os, however, Jack was sidetracked from his am-
bitions by a young German immigrant, Matilda Delker. Known by her
friends as Tillie, she was the daughter
7
O
of Christiana and JJacob Delker,' who
were married in Germany in 1864. She was born in 1870, probably in
Wiirttemberg, where her father had worked in a sugar refinery. She arrived
in the United States in 1882 with her mother and five siblings, following her
father, who had immigrated the year before.9
Several factors probably compelled the Delkers to leave Germany, which
at the time was experiencing extreme social, political, and economic up-
heaval. Anti-Semitism may have driven them out—Mae had even the most
discerningo observers convinced that her mother was JJewish—but by J
the
time the Delkers reached America, they were Lutherans. It is more likely
that they were drawn to the United States by economic success enjoyed by
relatives who had already settled in New York. Mae often claimed her
grandfather was a cousin of Peter Doelger, who had arrived in the States
penniless but had earned a fortune as one of Manhattan's most successful
brewers. Certainly the families shared some kind of relationship. In later
years, Mae publicly claimed Henry Doelger, a San Francisco developer and
Peter Doelger's nephew, as her cousin.
However, Jacob Delker was, at best, a poor relation to Peter Doelger. In
i 884, Jacob settled his family in Bushwick, a working-class Brooklyn neigh-
borhood that was the center of the city's German brewing industry. He
struggled to support his wife and children as a laborer, painter, and coffee
peddler. In the i 8908, he served with the Brooklyn Fire Department, indi-
cating he had established some connections with his local political boss; such
opportunities usually came as reward for support from loyal constituents.
Still the Delkers remained poor: The American dream as lived by Peter
Doelger eluded them. When Tillie was fourteen, her family rented rooms
behind a bakery, next to the blazing outdoor oven. After several more
moves, the Delkers settled near bustling Bushwick Avenue, along a street of
tenements sandwiched between businesses, factories, and stores. Most
8 * MAE * WEST
likely, Tillie had to help support the family. A skillful seamstress, she could
do piecework, sew for private families, or even work in one of the local gar-
ment factories.10
Like other immigrant daughters, Tillie was caught between old-country
traditions and the enticements of her new American home. According to
Mae, Tillie's ambition was not to sew but rather to become an actress on the
American stage. Popular culture, specifically theater and vaudeville, provided
Tillie, and many other immigrants, with an introduction to American soci-
ety—its norms, values, stereotypes, and ideals. These amusements were
leisure-time mainstays for Tillie's generation. From a poor immigrant girl's
perspective, they were more than just diversions. The glamour of show busi-
ness, in a country reputed to be the "land of opportunity," seemed to promise
escape from impoverishment, dreary tenements, and a life of hard labor.
Tillie's dreams were epitomized by a single American actress—Lillian
Russell. Celebrated as "a truly remarkable beauty efface and form," Russell
projected the Victorian female ideal of white womanhood: blond hair, blue
eyes, a heavily corseted figure, and a "peaches and cream" complexion. Tillie
worshiped Lillian Russell and envisioned herself in the actress's image. Mae
insisted that people often mistook her mother for the beloved actress. How-
ever, no matter how beautiful the young Tillie Delker was, Russell's
WASPish qualities contrasted greatly with Tillie's dark brown hair and eyes.
These attempts at remaking herself evidence Tillie's own struggle with iden-
tity. Although not subjected to the vehement discrimination unleashed
against
o
the Irish,' Germans were also considered inferior,' outside the realm
of acceptable white norms; they were stereotyped as drunken and violent or
silly and ignorant with laughable accents. Tillie battled these negative atti-
tudes by adopting Russell's image. Mae proudly displayed a picture of her
mother, anonymously retouched to make her look more like Lillian Russell
and less like Matilda Delker.
Tillie met resistance as she aspired to follow in Russell's footsteps. An
acting career for a newly arrived German girl who was just learning English
was a remote dream, especially with parents who forbade the pursuit of such
a disreputable profession, but Tillie, as many remembered her, maintained a
quiet resolve. Mae claimed that Tillie secured a position as a "corset and
fashion model," a profession accessible to an immigrant seamstress with un-
steady English. If true, Tillie pursued this without her parents' consent. It
was far from respectable; buyers were known to make sexual advances, and
she could not have rejected their demands and kept her job long.11
She may well not have rejected them. Historian Kathy Peiss has found that
young
J o
working-class
o
women of Tillie's ogeneration,' known as "tougho o
girls,"
'
commonly rebelled against their parents' standards and experimented with

premarital intimacy. In Tillie's adolescent world, crowded tenements and
eroded parental supervision allowed young people to experiment with sex.
The ritual of working-class dating, in which young male suitors footed the
bill for their impoverished dates, often resulted in an exchange: cultural
amusements for sex. Ultimately, it would be Tillie who nurtured Mae, shap-
ing her attitudes about sex, men, and money. Mae recalled her parents bat-
tling over her early flirtations with the boys. "My father used to want me to
come home and all that, but my mother used to say, 'Oh, let her go, she can
take care of herself,' " Mae recalled. "I guess she wanted me to learn all that
right at the beginning." In many ways, Tillie was not only the motivator for
Mae West's libertine ideals but the prototype for her sexually transgressive
persona. 12
Tillie's youthful defiance soon met its end with Jack West. Initially, the
couple formed a passionate bond. Mae insisted that Jack was so jealously ob-
sessed with Tillie that he once attacked a group of men after one had dared
to flirt with her. Tillie was equally infatuated. "You see," Mae told an inter-
viewer, "my father had swept her off her feet."13
Jack and Tillie appeared an odd match. He was loud and talkative with a
quick temper and a love of horse racing; she was reserved and, as one journal-
ist described her, "plain, comfortable," and "kindly." According to Mae, Jack
craved bloody and bruising battles, while her mother "loved pretty things
about her." Tillie adored the theater and never drank, except a rare glass of
champagne—for which Jack nicknamed her "Champagne Til." At the same
time, Jack and Tillie had much in common. Both rebelled against parental ex-
pectations, Jack through sports and Tillie through her dreams of a theatrical
career. They both also made their livelihood, at least in part, through the ex-
ploitation of their bodies. Jack and Tillie shared a stubbornness and willing-
ness to test tradition. And, importantly, both knew very well the underside of
working-class life, its difficulties, its disappointments, and its challenges.14
On January 19, 1889, in Greenpoint, Battling Jack West and Tillie
Delker took their wedding vows before a local minister with Jack's sister Ju-
lia acting as maid of honor. Jack was twenty-four and Tillie was nineteen. He
quit boxing, and Tillie abandoned both corset modeling and, at her hus-
band's insistence, her hopes of becoming an actress. The couple moved in
with Jack's parents. In August 1891, Tillie gave birth to her first child, Katie,
in Jacob and Christiana Delker's Bush wick home.
Sadness soon befell Jack and Tillie. Only a few months after her birth,
Katie died, probably a victim of cholera, common in such working-class en-
claves. According to Mae, Tillie was devastated and grieved deeply.
10 * MAE * WEST
For almost two years after Katie's death, Jack and Tillie remained child-
less. For Tillie, stifled in her aspirations for a stage career and suffering from
the loss of her first child, married life proved to be disappointing and un-
happy. Her pain was compounded by Jack's temperamental outbursts. Mae
recalled that his impatience was so intense that "when he couldn't find what
he wanted, he'd pull the whole drawer out and dump it on the floor and
swear and everything—and my mother would have to come and find things
for him." She maintained that her mother "always felt she had made a big
mistake marrying him."15
But in 1893, life changed for Tillie. That year, she and Jack moved into a
Bushwick tenement on Willoughby Avenue where, on August 17, she gave
birth to a healthy baby girl. Named Mary Jane for her grandmother, but
called Mae by family members, she was delivered by an aunt. (The Wests
spelled it May; Mae later changed it herself.) Mae immediately became her
mother's greatest treasure. Tillie doted on her, indulged her every whim,
and lavished her with praise and attention. Although there were more West
children to come, Tillie, according to Mae, always considered her special
and handled her differently. "I was her whole world," Mae recalled. "She
treated me like a jewel." Mae's first memory was of "Mama" gently rubbing
her with baby oil after a bath.16
A firm and loving, cv
as well as often consumingo and obliging,7
o o
bond devel-
oped between Mae and her mother. Mae always credited Tillie as her driving
force; Tillie's impact on Mae was profound. "She tried in every way to un-
derstand me," Mae wrote. As evidence, Mae often recounted three episodes
from her childhood, all occurring at age four. In the first, Tillie indulged
Mae in her refusal to be photographed without a particular black and white
dog. The second incident took place in a busy department store where her
mother insisted harried clerks fetch a doll that Mae had spotted on an im-
possibly high shelf. The third transpired in an elderly "spinster's" home.
When little Mae, admiring some glass flowers, touched them, the old
woman harshly reprimanded her. Reportedly, Mae marched out of the
room, collected her coat, as well as Tillie's, and returned commanding, "We
go home, Ma." They did.
While Mae offered these incidents to demonstrate her inborn determina-
tion and temperament, they also reveal much about Tillie. She insisted that
her daughter be "humored" and coaxed, never harshly disciplined according
to standard Victorian childrearing practices. Mae attributed the evolution of
her unique personality to this special treatment. "She is not like other chil-
dren," Tillie cautioned John when he tried to discipline Mae. "Don't make
her like the others." Tillie shaped her daughter not only with an unconven-
tional upbringing but also by fashioning her memories. Mae did not directly
remember any of these early incidents; all had been told to her by her mother.
By imprinting memories on Mae, Tillie constructed her daughter as willful,
strong, and innately resistant to authority. Tillie emerged as equally unyield-
ing, tenaciously insisting that her daughter's demands always be satisfied.17
Tillie concentrated on nurturingo Mae into her ideal image,
o '
instilling
o
self-
assuredness and 1pride in her daughter.
O
According O
to Mae, '
her mother
stressed the importance of physical appearance and beauty. Mae recalled
strolling past Brooklyn storefronts, admiring her reflection in the windows
and refusing to carry packages, believing they marred her appearance. Tillie
also excused Mae from the household chores normally imposed upon young
girls of her generation. Tillie had a vision for her daughter, and it had noth-
ing to do with domesticity.
Reportedly, neighbors were critical of Tillie's parenting techniques.
Those who remembered the West family later described Tillie as "too easy"
and criticized her for allowing her little daughter to "push her around." Mae,
like her father, had an explosive temper, lashing out angrily at other chil-
dren. Reportedly, she was just as likely to "smack a boy on the nose as she
would a girl." Behind the fearsome Battling Jack's back, the neighbors de-
scribed "that West kid" as a "brat" and "holy terror."18
Mae's outbursts, easy frustration, and propensity to strike out indicated
that, despite Tillie's efforts, she was hardly a secure child. Some of Mae's
problems came from Jack West; she often admitted as much. She frequently
compared herself to Jack, claiming she possessed not only his tireless energy
and strength but also his extreme temperament. She never once cited simi-
larities between herself and her mother, whom she worshiped.
While Mae and Tillie shared a deep bond, her relationship with "Papa"
was difficult, complex from the beginning. She told one interviewer that her
father had wanted a boy, not a girl. Reportedly, Jack alleviated his disap-
pointment by teaching little Mae the manly arts of boxing, acrobatics, and
weightlifting. He immersed her in his world of physical brutality, taking her
to the gym and to prizefights. She claimed she enjoyed it and was fond of his
boxing pals, but her introduction to violence went even deeper: Mae re-
membered battling her father in one-on-one boxing matches. Pitting a
grown man, a trained boxer, against a small child was not mere play; it was
abusive. The relationship between violence and power consumed Mae as an
adult, and she often associated it with her father. Her fondest memory of
him was of a trip they took to a Coney Island circus. Mae, entranced by the
famous Bostick and his lions, was captivated by the struggle between animal-
istic brutality and human intellect.
12 * M A E * WEST
Mae's contact with her father was limited. In the evenings, O '
he came
bounding home, ate dinner, and, before long, was off for the night. While
Tillie worked at making home life pleasant and stable, Battling Jack made it
difficult. In addition to his hair-trigger temper, he was restless. In the first
seven years of Mae's life, the Wests lived in at least five different locations in
Bushwick and Greenpoint. By 189^, Jack had abandoned boilermaking to be-
come a night
o
watchman,' oguardingo local warehouses and businesses. He also
worked as a bouncer at local theaters and dance halls. In the 1900 census, he
identified himself as a "special policeman"; most likely he was providing mus-
cle for local businesses and crime bosses. That year, he was making enough
money to lease a home for his wife and children. Shortly afterward, he went
into business as a private eye and organized a "private police force" that he
hired out to those seeking help and protection. He could have only undertaken
such an endeavor in connection with the New York underworld. It was com-
mon for businesses, theaters, and saloons to rely on local crime syndicates to
guard their establishments. According to one source, Jack was also respected
by the local police, not surprising given their own ties to gang bosses.19
As Jack and Tillie settled into the criminal underworld's subculture, their
family began to grow. In December 1898, Tillie gave birth to another baby
girl, Mildred. Soon afterward, in February 1900, came a son, named John
Edwin for his father and grandfather. Although the new babies diverted
some of Tillie's energies, Mae believed that her mother favored her over the
other children. Tillie's permissive nature did not extend to Mildred and lit-
tle John; she disciplined them harshly and even permitted an occasional
switching; Mae claimed she always escaped such punishment. Tillie became
increasingly convinced that Mae was exceptional.20
According to Mae, even before her siblings arrived, she had begun to ful-
fill her mother's expectations. She claimed that by the age of three she ex-
hibited an extraordinary talent for mimicry, routinely impersonating family,
friends, and acquaintances. It set the Wests howling with laughter. In an era
when children were to be seen and not heard, Mae won attention and ap-
proval while commenting on a world in which she was powerless. She was
too young to realize it then, but she had discovered something mighty.
A steady diet of mass culture fostered Mae's special abilities. Tillie took
her along to plays and vaudeville, and Mae was enthralled. In her later years,
she reminisced about long-forgotten singers, jugglers, acrobats, and dialect
comedians. "I laughed with the Yiddish, Dutch, and Italian comics," she re-
called. "I listened all ears to the patter of the song and dance men." While
she remembered numerous entertainers fondly, one stood out as her fa-
vorite: the African-American performer Bert Williams. For most of her
professional life, Mae West credited him as her earliest influence.21
THEY W E R E TOO SMART 13
The young Mae West was not alone in her adulation. By the early 19005,
Williams and his partner, George Walker, had become two of America's
most popular entertainers. Famous for their cakewalk, an elaborate, high-
stepping African-American dance originating in slavery, they were among
the first blacks to break into white vaudeville and Broadway. Williams's
clowning made him the favorite of the duo. Light-skinned, he borrowed
from white American minstrelsy, performing in burnt cork makeup with a
large white greasepaint grin. His stage persona was dim-witted and silly; his
timing was calculated to be excruciatingly slow.22
While on the surface Williams's performances reified racism, he subtly
challenged it by grounding his performances in black comedic tradition.
Williams's stage presence emerged from the African-American practice of
signifying, a subversive rhetorical device that uses multiple and conflicting
messages to obscure rebellious meanings. Black signifying rests in double-
voicedness and encompasses innuendo, double entendre, parody, pastiche, ca-
joling, rapping, boasting, insulting, and many other verbal, visual, and/or
literary forms. Importantly, as scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has demon-
strated, black and white signification are distinct practices. In the white com-
munity, signifying refers to implying meaning. But among African Americans,
signifying involves the act of implying meaning. Hence the process of creating
double meanings is as important as the double meanings themselves.
Gates has traced the origins of black signifying to African and African-
O O J O
American trickster-heroes whose double-voicedness operates as a playful but

deadly serious rebellion. These tricksters engage in language games, or signi-
fication, that impart multiple and contradictory meanings. By generating a
dizzy spectacle where everything is subject to constant repetition and revi-
sion, trickster-heroes, or signifiers, reorder the world through disorder.
Gates describes black signifying as "a bit like stumbling unaware into a hall of
mirrors: the sign itself appears to be doubled, and at the very least, (re)dou-
bled upon ever clear examination." But, he writes, "It is not the sign itself . . .
which has multiplied. If orientation prevails over madness, we soon realize
that only the signifier has been doubled and (re)doubled." In the end, meaning
evaporates and all that remains is the messenger, the signifying trickster.23
Williams embraced the trickster's role and, empowered by signifying, in-
terrogated white oppression. He viewed his fictional character as a satire of a
white man; it functioned as a mirror that compelled unsuspecting whites to
peer into their weaknesses and insecurities. With the cakewalk, he resur-
rected a practice originally used by slaves to mock their masters' dance ritu-
als, compelling unwitting white audiences to laugh uproariously at
themselves and their outrageous behavior. His hit song "Nobody" captured
not only the frustration of the tattered blackface clown who experiences
14 * M A E * W E S T
"hunger and cold feet" but also the alienation of exploited African-American
people who "never got nothin'." Its summation was a forceful statement of re-
sistance. "Until I get something from somebody, some time," Williams sang in
his languid, half-spoken style, "I'll never do nothin' for nobody, no time."24
As writer Mel Watkins observes, Williams's humor and subversion "de-
pended on word play or lampooning usually solemn institutions." This was
one of his most enduringo contributions to little Mae West. She claimed that
even as a small child she was fascinated by language and its potential for mul-
tiple meanings. "I had acquired the manner of speaking that has become
identified with me," she maintained. "It came from my refusing to say certain
words." She remembered begging oo o
her mother to read out words until she
found one that when pronounced assumed an "individual connotation." Be-
ginning with her exposure to Williams, Mae would borrow heavily from sig-
nification. By adulthood, she was well aware that she had adopted it, often
explaining, "It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say
it, and how I look when I do and say it."25
Mae West's connection with Bert Williams and signification was both
deeply strong and personal. She maintained that somehow her father was in-
troduced to Williams. (Perhaps it was through their common love of box-
ing; Williams was an avid fan.) One of her most treasured, and seemingly
traumatic,' childhood memories was the night o
her father arrived home and
announced:
"Mae, I have a big surprise for you. Bert Williams is here. I've brought
him home to have dinner with you." I rushed in, looked at this man and
screamed, "It's not! It's not!" I went up to my room and cried, . . . My
mother told me my father wanted to go up to me, but Bert Williams
stopped him. He said, "I'll do it." He stood outside my door and started to
sing. Then I knew and came right out of my room and we all had dinner.
Do you know why I didn't recognize him? He was too light. He was a
black man but he was too light, so on stage he wore blackface.
Like many others, Mae imagined Williams as she had seen him onstage.
Even so, she attributed her outburst not to his unexpected appearance but
rather to her fear that her father had deceived her. "I cried," she explained,
26
"because I couldn't bear the thought
o that my
J father had lied to me."
While this incident revealed Mae's anxieties about her father, Williams's
presence also forced her to grapple with much larger issues—those of
racism and identity. In interviews Mae, always attempting to project
strength, admitted to crying only twice in her life, and this was one of those
times. It jolted her into a realization that the performer was quite different
than he or she appeared onstage. In many ways, Williams compelled her to
confront, at a tender age, the falsity of blackface. It was a traumatic awaken-
ing to the societal lies regarding race, which eventually resulted in a distrust
of the racist image created by white society to ensure superiority, domi-
nance, and predictability. Williams was not a buffoonish clown but rather, as
Mae observed, "looked more like a businessman." She learned that appear-
ances were illusions, obscuring other realities that could still be conveyed
through language. After all, it was the sound of Bert Williams's voice that re-
stored order to the West household and compelled Mae to leave her hiding
place and accept reality.27
Despite Mae's stunned reaction to the truth of blackface, she maintained
that her parents held progressive racial attitudes. Certainly their willingness
to entertain an African American in their home, even if it was the famous
Bert Williams, indicated that they deviated from most white Americans.
(Williams's own white co-stars often shunned him.) "I knew black people
from the beginning," Mae would insist. "So I realized they weren't stereo-
types, they were people like me, but darker." Although Mae's statement pre-
sumed whiteness as a baseline, it also awkwardly expressed identification
with African Americans. Without a doubt, Mae believed she shared a mar-
ginalized status with them. "I thought
O O
white men had it their own way J
too
long," she later remarked, "and should stop exploiting women and blacks and
gays." Throughout her career, in her performances and in her interviews, she
would act out an ambivalence over racial identity, pivoting between embrac-
ing and rejecting whiteness. Was Mae West passing? It is hard to determine.
O J O - T O
But it is clear that the character she would create, her fictionalized persona,
certainly was.28
While she may not have had any African-American genetic ties, the turn of
the twentieth century provided the little Mae West with a wide sampling of
African-American cultural forms. The most popular music of her youth was
ragtime, rooted in the African musical tradition. The cakewalk became a
O '
craze throughout the nation. Other forms of black song and dance were also
O O
popular. This process of cultural appropriation and white society's struggle to

cling to its fantasy of whiteness revealed that the racial identity of European
Americans was never clear-cut. If anything, much of the mass culture of Mae
West's youth, with its African-American ties, challenged racial fixedness. It
was within this turmoil that Mae began her search for an identity and a voice.
Race was not the only contested element of the American identity con-
fronted by young Mae West. She had to balance her mother's world of
"tough" working-class girls who defied middle-class Victorian prudishness
l6 * M A E * W E S T
with mass cultural forms that reinforced it. She remembered Florodora sex-
tets—Broadway's singing Gibson Girls, the embodiment of whiteness and
submissive femininity—being held up as role models for little girls to emu-
late in her youth.
Mae rejected this standard early. Much to her mother's delight, by age
four she began imitating famous performers, and Florodora Girls never ap-
peared in her repertoire. Rather, her impressions were of men—singer and
dancer George M. Cohan and comedian Eddie Foy. Later Mae forcefully in-
sisted that she did not seek to copy men but rather to mimic them; she was
not striving to replicate maleness but to comment on it. At the same time,
she also began
o
imitatingo Bert Williams,' an even more rebellious act. When
impersonating him, she became a white female child pretending to be a
black male signifying on and mocking white society. This was a critical step
in the construction of her stage personality during a formative period of her
development.
Overjoyed, Tillie encouraged Mae, believing that her daughter's energy
and outrageous behavior could be redirected into performance. She hoped
Mae would learn to rein in her temper by deflecting "it into channels where
control would become automatic." When her vivacious little daughter O
reached five, Tillie arranged for her to entertain at a church social. Mae, by
her own account, was the hit of the program. Immediately, Tillie booked
Mae to sing, dance, and do impersonations at other local events. But Tillie's
zeal produced more friction within the family. Jack protested Tillie's ambi-
tions for Mae. Like Jacob Delker, he did not want his daughter onstage.29
Despite her husband's opposition, Tillie continued to promote their
daughter's
o
talents. Mae recalled that at age
o
seven her mother enrolled her in
a dancing o
school. Mae claimed she was such a natural that the instructor
soon entered her in an amateur contest at Brooklyn's Royal Theater.
Sponsored by vaudeville houses or theater companies, Saturday night am-
ateur contests were common in this heyday of variety entertainment. Win-
ners received as much as ten dollars, a welcome supplement to any
working-class income. But these contests could also be brutal. Audiences
booed, heckled, and egged greenhorn performers; those who really flopped
got the hook. Mae remembered her mother as uncharacteristically nervous
on the night of her debut. Jack had opposed Mae's participation, insisting
that she was too young
J o
and would suffer stageo
fright.
o
Indeed,' Tillie had her
hands full. Mae showed no fear but was in an extremely obstinate mood.
When the emcee called out, "Baby May, Song and Dance," Mae, seeing the
spotlight
r o fixed on the other side of the stage,
o ' refused to budge.
o After another
introduction,' the spotlight
r O
began
O
to swing O
to center stage.
O
"When I saw it
comin' for me," Mae recalled, "I ran out to meet it, not a bit scared."30
THEY WERE T O O SMART IJ
Baby Mae epitomized Victorian innocence and sentimentality. Tillie had

carefully assembled a costume of "a pink and green satin dress with gold
spangles [and] a large white picture hat with pink buds and pink satin rib-
bons," accentuated by pink slippers and stockings. Mae recalled performing
several popular songs (although the ones she later named were written when
she was in her teens) and, after finishing with a dance, bowing to the ap-
plause.
r That night
o Mae took first place,
i ' winningoao gold medal and ten dol-
lars. Her father, who had sat smugly in the audience, was convinced. His
daughter
O
would perform
I
again.
O
He was OgoingO to take her himself.
Mae claimed that over the next year her parents entered her in numerous
amateur contests. Soon it became a family affair. Tillie drilled her on her act,
designed her costumes, and brokered bookings. On performance nights,
Jack hauled Mae's suitcase to the theater and then took his place in the audi-
ence as Tillie prepared their daughter backstage. Mae's act consisted of im-
personations, dances, and, eventually, a selection of double-entendre songs
inflected with adult bawdiness. Her sister, Mildred, later credited the ribald
nature of Mae's earliest performances to Tillie. "Even as a little girl," she re-
membered, "Mae's character songs were risque."31
While the sight of a little child performing songs with sexual undertones
may have been shocking, Tillie was borrowing from trends popular in vari-
ety entertainment of the period. Despite the prevailing rigid Victorian atti-
tudes regarding sex, American mass culture became increasingly saturated
with salacious references. In some circles,' suggestive
oo
songs
o
became the rage,
o '
and performers made their mark as double-entendre singers. Certainly no
vaudevillian was more popular than singer, dancer, and comic Eva Tanguay.
Billed as "the I Don't Care Girl," '
she emerged
to
as one of the era's most fa-
mous stars just as Mae West first hit the amateur circuit.
Tanguay provided an alternative image to the Florodora sextet. Of French
Canadian descent, Tanguay was short and curvy, hardly the classic American
WASPish beauty. But, by her own admission, she knew how to manipulate
male spectators and enact desirablity. Not a trace of Victorian sentimentality
or propriety could be found in her act. Her monologues and spicy songs
were indelicate;7 she danced with electrified abandon. Although o she vigor-
o
ously battled censorship, she became known as "Vaudeville's Biggest Draw-
ing Card" and at her peak earned $3 ,^00 a week.
Tillie joined growing legions of Tanguay admirers and became satisfied
that she was the perfect role model for Mae. Tillie urged her daughter to
closely study vaudeville's biggest headliner. According to Mae, her mother
"was always talkin' to me about bein' an actress. Eva Tanguay was a big shot
then. Everybody was crazy about her. Mother took me to see her again and
again and told me I could be important like that. We went to all the shows
18 * MAE * WEST *
and we talked about nothin' but what I was going to be." Eventually Tillie
became acquainted with the star. It appeared to be an unlikely pairing—the
working-class
o
stage
o
mother and vaudeville's most celebrated diva. The two
did have a connection, however: Tanguay knew Bert Williams and was ro-
mantically involved with his partner, George Walker.32
Mae soon incorporated a Tanguay imitation into her act, her first and only
impression of a woman. Ironically, Mae spent a fair share of her youthful in-
nocence impersonating the "bad girl" of the American stage. Inspired by Tan-
guay and cheered on by her mother, Mae eventually came to understand the
process of manipulating the audience's imagination and simulating desirabil-
ity. The impact of this pint-sized performance with its sensual undercurrent
was significant. Purposefully or not, Tillie exploited her daughter by playing
with erotic allure. While Mae was too young
J o
to understand,' it had a lastingo
effect. Eventually her performance would center on sexuality and seduction.
Mae boasted that her act won high acclaim and that she usually came in
first at local talent contests. At the age of eight, she got her first big break
with an appearance at the amateur show at Brooklyn's Gotham Theater.
That evening, she claimed, her impersonations of Bert Williams and Eddie
Foy netted first place. Seated in the audience was actor Hal Clarendon, a
handsome leading man who often appeared with Brooklyn's most respected
stock companies. According to Mae, he was so impressed by her perfor-
mance, he rushed backstage to congratulate her parents and invite their lit-
tle ingenue to join his troupe. "I accepted," she claimed, "even before Papa
did it for me."33
Later Clarendon confirmed he had discovered Mae West, but his account
differed somewhat. In i 93 3, he told the New York Daily News that a "Judge
Rosenthal," a friend of the West family, had strongly suggested he bring Mae
' J ' O J OO O
into his theatrical ensemble. Although Clarendon could not exactly say who
Judge Rosenthal was, he claimed that he "respected" Mae's connections and,
as a result, agreed to take on the child. Curiously, when the Daily News re-
porter began poking around, it seemed no one could remember Judge
Rosenthal, the figure so helpful in getting Mae West her first real acting job.
Clarendon's admission that he had been coerced into accepting her and
everyone's
J
caginess
O
regarding
O O
Rosenthal's identityJ suggest
CO
that he was an un-
derworld figure, most likely the colorful racketeer Herman Rosenthal.
Just as the young Mae West made her professional debut, Herman Rosen-
thai was moving up the ranks of New York's criminal underworld after oper-
ating for several years as a racetrack bookie and a pimp. He enjoyed support
and protection from the Bowery's most powerful leader, the Tammany Hall
boss Big Tim Sullivan. In fact, Sullivan, who owned saloons and theaters as
THEY W E R E TOO SMART 19
well as dabbling in betting and prostitution, looked upon Rosenthal as a fa-

vored protege.
For small-time Ogamblers, down-on-their-luck performers,
1
minor gang-
O O
sters, and aspiring boxers, Rosenthal became a folk hero. He was extremely
generous, liberally sharing his money with friends and acquaintances. He
also had close ties to Brooklyn; his mother lived there, and some even called
it "Herman's Homeland." With his connections to the underworld and
horse racing, Jack West had plenty of opportunity to become acquainted
with the racketeer. It would have been characteristic of Rosenthal to open
doors for Mae. He liked children and often assisted friends with his ties to
theater people.
Many of those who benefited from Rosenthal's generous spirit were later
reluctant to admit their association with him. In 1912, after publicly expos-
ing ties between the police and crime bosses, Rosenthal was gunned down
outside his favorite Manhattan restaurant. During O
his funeral,' mourners
filled the streets outside his residence, but, fearing retribution from both the
police and gangs, no one was willing to serve as a pallbearer. Only family and
a few close friends, including attorney Harold Spielberg, who would later
represent Mae in legal battles, followed the casket to its Brooklyn resting
place. Rosenthal's controversial reputation may explain why Clarendon and
everyone else was so reluctant to specifically credit him.34
Until this point in her life, Mae had enjoyed a fairly typical turn-of-the-
twentieth-century childhood. She roller-skated, played with dolls, and at-
tended public school. Although she had several playmates, she was closest to
her cousins. When the family discovered that she was left-handed, they dis-
couraged it, forcing her to practice penmanship with her right hand for
hours on end. Mae pretended she was signing autographs.
The demands of the stock company drastically cut down on Mae's youth-
ful diversions. Initially, Clarendon used her as a preshow or between-scenes
filler act, allowing her to sing, dance, and perform impersonations. Within
the first week, however, she had so infuriated him that he considered dis-
missing the well-connected little performer. "She was a terror all right," he
confirmed. Clarendon demanded that he never be disturbed in his dressing
room. Mae completely ignored his edict, constantly interrupting him. Ac-
cording to the actor, once, while he slept soundly, she slipped in and lac-
quered his face with greasepaint.
Although Clarendon was, as he described it, "furious,"there was probably
little he could do to get rid of the West child. After suffering with her for a
while, he contended, "she got me down . . . I finally got to like her." Eventu-
ally, he even eased her into children's roles in the company's plays. By Mae's
2O M A E * W E S T
account, her weekly salary climbed from eighteen to thirty dollars, an im-
pressive sum that, if true, certainly must have helped the Wests. At best,
working-class
o
tradesmen earned between ten and sixteen dollars a week.35
While it was a great opportunity, stock company work was grueling. Mon-
day through Saturday, the troupe offered two shows a day, starting rehearsals
at ten in the morning and finishing with the final curtain at eleven at night.
Each week, the company offered a new play, so new lines had to be learned.
In the summers, Clarendon took a troupe on tour, and Mae went along with
an aunt to chaperone. Back home, when Clarendon could not use her, she
played with other stock companies or, at her mother's insistence, attended re-
hearsals to study experienced actors and actresses. Mae was always eager to
please her mother, but she remembered this time as "hard days of work and
more work, when I practiced dancing and singing until my feet ached and my
36
throat felt as though
O
I had been massaged
O
with a marlin spike."
1
As a result, Mae's schooling became sporadic. For a time, she had a pri-
vate tutor, apparently a fellow who owed Jack money, very likely from a
gambling debt. Overall, though, her formal education was limited. Although
those who later knew her commented on her keen intelligence,
to ' book learn-
ing was never her strength. It did not hinder her much. Costume designer
Edith Head, who later became a close friend, observed that Mae "may not
have been literate, but she was utterly articulate."37
Now young Mae West had little time for playmates or childhood amuse-
ments. She was almost totally immersed in the adult world. Her early years
onstage forced her to grow up quickly. Mildred later remembered that her
sister "never did care to play with other children; they seemed silly to her."38
While her peers spent their days in school, Mae received her education
from the stock company. "No actress ever had a better school," she main-
tained. Hal Clarendon cast her in a variety of roles ranging from Shake-
spearean classics to popular "blood and thunder" melodramas. All the plays
influenced her, but she was most intrigued by melodrama. With plots pitting
good against evil, this genre required distinctive acting techniques. Perform-
ers ranted their lines, underscoring their delivery with exaggerated body
language. Dialogue was spartan, and players wrung the most from each
word. Mae recalled that "we played it earnestly and swiftly, and we did what
we could to learn our parts better and make our acting say more than the
lines could." Although she was a hellion, Mae was a perceptive child and a
prodigious mimic. Under Clarendon's guidance and by observing the
troupe's other members, she began to refine what would become one of her
most heralded talents, her ability to infuse complex meanings into her dia-
logue with carefully articulated gestures and intonations.
Playing with the stock company also carried its ironies. The little girl who
surrendered her youth to the theater now spent most of it enacting child-
hood on the stage. o
In her first role,' she starred as "Angel
o
Child" in the tem-
perance drama Ten Nights in a Barroom and pleaded with a fictional father to
stop drinking. Mae also played Little Red Riding Hood, girls of the hardened
urban slums, and Little Eva of Uncle Tom's Cabin. On occasion, Clarendon
used her in male roles; she played Little Lord Fauntleroy, Shakespearean
boys, and East Lynne's Little Willie.39
Although Mae developed a variety of characterizations, she usually
played little girls cut from a similar mold. Melodrama's female children
were pure and virtuous but also resourceful and determined. Triumphing
over danger and adversity, they were often heroines who saved the family
farm or, at least, tried to rescue their dissipated alcoholic fathers. On the
one hand, their exaggerated
3
oo
moral virtue affirmed Victorian notions of
womanhood. On the other, their superiority over male villains and evil
forces allowed them to transcend traditional ogender boundaries. Not sur-
prisingly, many melodramas were written by female playwrights, and the
genre's biggest fans were women, who could identify with the female pro-
tagonists. For Mae, it was an even more empowering experience. She was
not just a spectator; as an actress she ascended directly into the story. She
became part of a staged reality in which little girls both affirmed and re-
jected white Victorian womanhood.
Mae quickly learned important, yet paradoxical, lessons during these for-
mative years. She claimed that early on she became aware that women could
manipulate men—that women could exploit their subordinate status to gain
power. "Ever since those days," she remarked on her years with the stock
company, "I realized there was a difference between the sexes. I found that as
a little girl I could get my way easier than could little boys."40
Mae also discovered that while gender roles confined women to a rigidly
subservient status, at the same time, identity could be flexible. As a child ac-
tress,' she was encouragedo to "be" different people
i r and even change o genders.
o
Fundamentally, for Mae, identity became something that could be con-
structed and reconstructed to suit a time, place, or situation. Essentially, an
actress made "passing" into a profession, always playing out a false identity. In
some ways, the assumption of a variety of personas was liberating. But it also
robbed Mae, at a critical period of emotional growth, of the chance to define
her sense of self. No doubt, it masked, as well as accentuated, Mae's insecu-
rities and deep wounds. If later it appeared that Mae West, the star, had no
personal dimension, it was because in early childhood she was compelled to
be everyone else but herself.
22 M A E * WEST
Mae trouped on as a stock company player until about 190^, when, at the
age of twelve, she was forced into early retirement. She claimed that she had
physically matured and was no longer able to carry off children's roles, but it
is likely that the actions of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chil-
dren contributed to halting her career. This watchdog group had successfully
agitated for stricter child labor laws, especially targeting the "child slaves of
the stage." The Society busily ended the careers of several noted child per-
formers, including Buster Keaton, whose parents attempted to conceal him
in some luggage during a raid. "I was to have my trouble with them," Mae
confessed, "but I never hid in a trunk."41
Althougho
Mae's career had stalled,' Tillie remained confident that her
daughter
o
was destined for stardom. Duringo this time,' she arranged
o
for Mae
to attend Ned Wayburn's Studio of Stage Dancing in New York City. Way-
burn was a former blackface performer who opened a free dance school
where he not only offered instruction but also scouted acts for vaudeville.
While Mae may have gained some tips from Wayburn, her apprenticeship
produced little more. So she returned to performing at amateur nights,
community events, and church socials, where she offered recitations,
danced, sang, and did impersonations. Perfecting her Bert Williams routine,
she added a rendition of "Nobody.""That was a big hit for me," she told an
editor from the African-American magazine Jet in the 1970S.42
Entering her mid-teens, Mae worked up a routine as a "coon shouter." A
remnant of the minstrel stage, coon shouter s were whites in blackface who
performed rag-style tunes, with lyrics that often perpetuated degrading
black stereotypes. In the early twentieth century, they were some of Amer-
ica's most successful stars. One of the most celebrated was Sophie Tucker,
known as the "Last of the Red Hot Mamas." It is not surprising that Mae ex-
perimented with this popular entertainment genre. Since the early nine-
teenth century, blackface performance had had a successful history with
white audiences. With its long track record, blackface may have seemed a
promising vehicle to a hopeful like Mae West.
Blackface was a complicated white performance ritual that rested, as
many have argued, on contradictory impulses. On one level, blackface func-
tioned as an assertion of racism. With grotesque exaggeration, blackface
performers enacted key components of racist ideology, reinforcing prejudi-
cial notions that African Americans were simpleminded, foolish, often vio-
lent, and sometimes dangerously sexual. While it ultimately reflected white
self-doubts and insecurities, it also reinforced racial hierarchy and white su-
premacy. Several scholars have contended that on another level, however, it
occasionally challenged key elements of racialist ideology, particularly the
immutability of race. As literary critic Susan Gubar argues, in many in-

stances blackface performers "testfed] the boundaries between racially de-
fined identities." Within the space created by blackface, white performers
often unleashed potent critiques of American society, its power structure,
and sometimes even racism.43
Mae West's blackface performance, unlike that of other coon shouters,
rested on a volatile foundation. Their inspiration came from white min-
strels, but her adoption of blackface extended back to her early imperson-
ations of Bert Williams. He continued to influence her performance
strongly, so much so that his style remained apparent even many years later
in Mae's half-spoken manner of singing. But his presence went beyond her
surface delivery and permeated the substance of her performance, providing
the sustaining subtext for it. For Williams each performance was a battle,
and from him Mae learned her most valuable lesson, that the performative
was the political. Up until her death, Mae continued to praise him as a "fine
artist" who challenged white society's racist stereotypes.44
In addition to borrowing from Williams, Mae incorporated a generous
share of Eva Tanguay into her new act. By this point, Mae had thrown off the
constraints of idealized melodramatic womanhood. In exchange, she increas-
ingly assumed Tanguay's technique of staging desirability while challenging
restrictive Victorian expectations of women. Combining Tanguay's powerful
manipulation of the female illusion with Williams's signified rebellion, Mae
began formulating her stage persona as a coon shouter. Masked and paradox-
ical, it carried with it a reification of racism and sexism as well as a rejection
of whiteness and male authority. Mae's coon-shouting years were significant
in her own evolution into a trickster, an important step in her transforma-
tion into a performer who strove not only to affirm and entertain but also to
challengeo
and provoke
r
througho
calculated wit.
These transitional Jyears were difficult for the teenage o Mae West. As a
stock performer she had led a life apart from her peers for almost four years.
Now she had to integrate into the working-class adolescent world. She briefly
returned to public school but quit at age thirteen. Outside of her cousins and
immediate family, she made few friends, having an especially hard time relat-
ing to girls her own age. Mae later claimed that Tillie had discouraged such
O O O o
friendships—they were not expedient. "Girls seemed a foolish investment of

my time," Mae remarked, insisting that she felt attention was better spent on
boys. "I liked all the boys," she bragged, "and kissed them all."45
Despite Mae's boasting, she also expressed mixed feelings about sex. She
maintained that she first learned about it at the age O
of nine byJ sneakingO a
peek at a medical book. Surprisingly, the woman who became the celebrated
24 M A E * W E S T
"Queen of Sex" was, at first, repulsed. "After I had read it, I had a funny feel-
ing about my parents," she confessed, "a particular feeling—disgust, you
might
o
say.
J
It took me a longo time to get
o
over it."46
On many occasions, Mae alleged that she had become sexually active early,
wanting to experiment before puberty to avoid pregnancy, but she gave sev-
eral different accounts of her first sexual encounter. In one, a young music
teacher, who gave her lessons while she sat on his lap and he kissed her, initi-
ated her on the front steps of her parents' home. In another, she claimed to
have seduced a retired actor who was ignorant of her extreme youth. She also
told of a schoolteacher who introduced her to sex when she was only thir-
teen. "He got me to stay after school. I helped to correct papers and things,"
she remembered. "I was too young to feel anything, you know. But I liked it
because he was paying me attention. I always wanted attention."47
It is possible that all of these early sexual encounters took place. Much of
Mae's youth was spent among adults, and enacting sensuality made her a
likely target for abuse. Despite her later insistence that she was the aggressor
in these affairs, she also indicated that she felt exploited. She related her ear-
liest sexual encounters dispassionately, with a curious detachment that
would always mark her attitude toward intimacy. This ambivalence reflected
the reality that Mae West's first exposure to sex was traumatic; she was a
victim of what now would be recognized as child molestation. In each case,
adult men used her for gratification. Her rationalization that her teacher's
special attention was reasonable compensation was belied by her decision to
quit school at exactly the same time. She did not really seem to covet the at-
tention he offered.
Clearly, Mae West's earliest sexual experiences were emotionally damag-
ing.
o
Late in life,' she discussed what she identified as her first sexual dream.
She claimed it occurred sometime between the ages to often and twelve. Al-
though she insisted that she was not frightened by it, her account conveyed a
nightmarish
o
tone. In it, a "giant
7
o
male bear" entered her bedroom,' walking
o
on
his hind legs. "He came forward, toward me, and stepping up on the foot of
the bed, he leaned his paws high on the wall against which my bed rested."
He then proceeded to have sex with her. She often insisted that the dream
was pleasurable, but to one female interviewer she confessed that it "wor-
ried me for a long time." Indeed, she revealed to a close associate that when
she reached adulthood, she was plagued by such intense dreams about sex
that she required sedatives so she could sleep.48
Some have presumed that Jack West sexually abused Mae, but she always
stridently maintained that her father had never even laid a hand on her. Re-
gardless, by her teens, she had come to detest him. "I didn't want him to
T H E Y W E R E TOO S M A R T 2£
touch me," she explained. "I didn't want to be in the same room with him."
She attributed her reaction to Jack's pungent cigars, strict paternalism, and
unpredictable temper—except in her autobiography, where she offered a
curious assessment of her increasing animosity, lamenting that "Freud wasn't
there to explain it to me." This odd aside is unclear but indicates that she
vaguely linked her resentment to something sexual. It is possible that she
may have been redirecting her anger at her father for failing to protect her
from sexual exploitation. Still, while she continued to insist that Jack had
never hurt her, she was definitely scared of him. She remembered fearfully
hiding in her parents' bedroom, armed with an iron curtain rod, to avoid her
father's wrath after he learned that she was staying out late with neighbor-
hood boys. Jack's rage quickly passed, and apparently nothing came of this
episode, but Mae's reaction implied that she was terrified of her father.49
The West household was hardly a happy one. When Jack was home,
which was seldom, the atmosphere was tense. According to Mae, Tillie kept
the peace, coolly reasoning with him. To make matters worse, the family's
income declined with her career's downturn. By 1909, the Wests had relo-
cated to a brownstone that they shared with two other working-class fami-
lies. In the preceding years, death had repeatedly visited both sides of the
family, all still living in Brooklyn's impoverished sections. Jack's sisters Julia
and Edith died of tuberculosis, leaving their young children to be raised by
relatives. Tillie's mother, Christiana Delker, died in 1901 from diabetes. Ja-
cob succumbed to hepatitis a year later. After suffering heart problems, the
colorful John Edwin West passed away in 1906 at, by any account, an ad-
vanced age. Grandmother Mary Jane moved in with Jack and Tillie, where
she wasted away, afflicted with kidney failure. She died in August 1909, just
days after Mae's sixteenth birthday.50
Tillie seemed determined that Mae would not be trapped in the dreary life
of a working-class woman, destined to serve as wife and mother. She applied
tremendous pressure on her daughter, insisting that Mae focus solely on her
career. While Mae apparently had her share of teenage escapades, she re-
mained a homebody, thoroughly tied to Tillie. Seemingly this was true even
when Mae was in her twenties. After she reached stardom in the 19308, jour-
nalists sought out former acquaintances for juicy tidbits on the young Mae
West. All that one neighbor, who had lived near the Wests in the late 191 os
and early 192os, could say was, "It always seemed strange to me that such a vi-
vacious and beautiful girl would prefer to stay home with her mother."51
Throughout her early life, Mae had little time to spare. She devoted her-
self to studying other performers and attending theater and vaudeville. But
she would also remember that by mid-adolescence she had become aware of
2 6 A E * W E S T *
her position within the larger world. "When I was about 14—15, I resented
that men could have sex, do anything they wanted, run around. . . . I re-
sented being held down," she explained. "A woman couldn't pick the man
she wanted. Then she was talked into a guy by her family, maybe for money
or something else. If she went after a man she was marked a bum, a tramp."
She would become increasingly determined to use her performance to chal-
lenge society's hypocritical attitudes toward sex and male privilege.52
Despite her growing resentment of gender inequalities, Mae claimed that
her interest in boys intensified. Tillie attempted to control even this aspect
of her life, urging Mae to experiment but avoid commitment. Tillie knew
that romance led to marriagecs and babies,' a death blow to a woman's theatri-
cal career, but she also had to confront Mae's budding curiosity about the
opposite sex. "Mother preferred that I divide my attention among several
boys," Mae recalled. "She encouraged it." And Mae was not the type of girl to
say no, especially to her mother.53
* T * W * O
The Way She Does It
Miss West can't singo a bit but she can dance like George o
Co-
han, and personality just permeates the air every minute she is
on stage.
o
In other words,' it isn't what Miss West does,' but the
way she does it that assures her a brilliant career on the stage.
— New York Morning Telegraph, October 11, 1913
round 1909, Mae West finally got a chance to return to the pro-
A fessional stage. Her break came when William Hogan, small-

time vaudevillian and friend of the family, invited her to join his
act. He needed a partner to play his girlfriend in a Huckleberry
Finn routine. It was not a particularly original or creative act; for years,
vaudeville bits based on rural, Twain-like characters had been common.
With it, Mae found herself in a position similar to her experience in stock
companies, playing a Becky Thatcher—type character—a white male fantasy
of white femininity. Not surprisingly, the act soon underwent revision, and
Huckleberry Finn was discarded in exchange for a Bowery skit. Another
popular format, Bowery skits centered on the antics of a Bowery boy and his
"tough girl" counterpart. Now Mae's character would become a poor but
spunky, assertive, and optimistic street-smart urbanite. In other words, this
was no Becky Thatcher.
With Mae's willful and independent streak, it is likely that she exerted
considerable influence over the act's new direction. The urban setting o
was
familiar to her; she had been nurtured in it. Although performing furnished
an escape, every night she returned home to the reality of her working-class
Brooklyn roots. She told of one early beau, among many others, whose gang
affiliation resulted in bloody warfare in front of her parents' home. (Her fa-
ther eagerly plunged in.) The stage offered Mae an opportunity to reenvi-
sion the old neighborhood and her position within it. It became an idealized
27
28 M A E * WEST
world in which she eventually would assume complete control. Later she
1
confessed, "I've never been more secure than when I'm on stage."
7
o
While Hogan and West were eventually successful enough to secure a
O J O
manager, they failed to break into the big time. Vaudeville was a precarious
profession. Work was sporadic; performers were often laid off for months at
a time. Reportedly, during downtime, Mae continued to hone her skills in
another venue—burlesque. One Brooklynite remembered seeing the
teenage Mae West performing a fan dance, her body covered with powder.
"The fan was big and red and she shook her bare body behind it. ... When
she shook herself the powder would fly all over the stage, down onto us in
the front rows," he remembered. "We loved that."2
Generally, burlesque was considered the place for performers and acts
too declasse for polite middle- and upper-class society. Its audiences were
predominantly working-class men. Traditionally, shows featured women in
tights and revealing costumes performing musical numbers interspersed
with jokes and skits by ribald male comedians. Most female burlesquers spe-
cialized in the cooch, a grinding, European-inspired belly dance. Early on,
Mae became an adept coocher. While burlesque represented the ultimate in
commodified and exploited female sexuality, it probably provided the West
family with a more steady income than Mae's engagements with Hogan in
lower-tier vaudeville.3
Sometime in 1909 or 1910, Hogan and West played the Canarsie Music
Hall, where they shared the bill with Frank Wallace, a nineteen-year-old
song-and-dance man. A resident of Queens and son of Lithuanian immi-
grants, Wallace had changed his name from Szatkus. Thin and modest look-
ing, he was nonetheless a crowd pleaser; his snappy dancing and ragtime
singing wowed audiences. Wallace claimed that "one day after my perfor-
mance a swell-looking o
woman with a German accent came around back
stage and said she had a daughter who was a comer. She had seen my act, she
said, and thought I could help her kid." While Wallace was no vaudeville
headliner, he appeared to have a promising future. According to him, Tillie
suggested that he team up with Mae, which he did, he claimed, after some
coaxing. But he also later confessed that he had earlier spotted Mae at an am-
ateur competition and was impressed by her unique coon shouting. Mae al-
ways claimed that he had begged her to be his partner.4
Frank and Mae began rehearsing in the basement of the Wests' rented
brownstone. He was soon captivated by Mae. She was hardworking and tal-
ented as well as attractive, with a petite figure and thick, dark, curly hair. In
a few short weeks, they put together a sleek act borrowing liberally from
black music and dance. They opened with Mae's ragtime rendition of
THE WAY SHE D O E S IT 29
"Lovin' Honey Man" and followed with a song-and-dance number called "I
Love It." Occasionally, she performed "When My Marie Sings Chidee Bidee
Bee" in Italian dialect, and Wallace offered specialty dances. With Wallace's
connections, the duo secured bookings on the Fox Circuit. They must have
enjoyed some success, for in the summer of 1910 the census reported that
she had been fully employed the past year.
In early 1911, Wallace and West landed parts in A Florida Enchantment, a
road show on the Columbia Burlesque Circuit. While it was not the big
time, Columbia was the most powerful and prestigious of the burlesque cir-
cuits. Hoping to broaden its audience, it had incorporated Broadway-style
touring musicals, like A Florida Enchantment, staged along with the risque
comedy acts and hip-grinding Gayety Girls. Columbia's efforts at re-
spectability were met with criticism from the more legitimate sectors of
the industry. Show business's most esteemed publication, Variety, admon-
ished Columbia and other burlesque circuits for drifting from "the bur-
lesque idea," warning them to stick to "girls in tights and comedians who
prefer to make burlesque fun rather than a name for themselves." In show
business, burlesque was third-rate, its performers appropriately consigned
to anonymity.5
Still, the more elaborate burlesque road shows were popular with audi-
ences not only for their daring content but precisely because they applied
the "burlesque idea" to stage traditions. Through the musical theater format,
these burlesque productions poked fun at society's most sacred institutions,
using comedy as a backhanded commentary on American values and class di-
visions. While these productions were far from revolutionary, they did serve
both as a reflection of and a channel for the discontent of laboringo classes and
the poor—an important training ground for the maturing Mae West.
A Florida Enchantment embodied such a subversive spirit. It focused on the
travails of Meyerwurst, a German "woman hater" who is seduced by a "little
French adventuress" played by West. It not only lampooned high society
with two aristocratic characters named Lord Bonehead and Cheathem but
also mocked entertainment industry elite with a burlesque chorus spoof of
the era's most famous stars, including the theater's queen of high drama,
Ethel Barrymore. In addition to pursuing Meyerwurst and Cheathem, Mae
delivered the song "Tiger Love," backed by the burlesque chorus. Wallace,
who played a Jewish character, Young Goldburg, also had a number. During
the show's olio, Wallace and West reprised their vaudeville act, receiving
praise as "clever" and for their "coon shouting." One reviewer reported that
they "score[d] heavily with a novel dance," and another noted that Mae made
"several changes
o
down to full tights
o
with ogood effect."6
3 0 M A E * W E S T
Enchantment's road tour took Wallace and West into the heart of the Mid-
west, well beyond Tillie's protective supervision. Tillie had continued to at-
tempt to direct both Mae's personal and professional lives, cautioning her
away from romance. "My mother never approved of a single boy friend I had,"
Mae later told a reporter. "Whenever I showed up with one who wanted to
take me to the altar, my mother didn't like him and when I saw that, some-
how or other I soured on him, too." While Tillie must have been proud of her
daughter's favorable reviews, she would undoubtedly have been alarmed to
know that, once on the road, Wallace proposed marriage. Mae claimed that
she turned him down repeatedly and continued affairs with other cast mem-
bers, members of the crew, men she met in hotels, and male fans from the au-
dience. "Marriage was the furthest thing in my plans," she recalled.7
By the time the tour reached Milwaukee in early April 1911, West's atti-
tude had changed. She contended that Etta Wood, an older cast member
O *
who coincidentally played Mother Goldburg, took her aside, insisting that
her promiscuity would only get her into "trouble.""Sooner or later some-
thing's going to happen to you," Wood reportedly warned. "Marry Wallace
and be respectable." Mae claimed that Wood's advice forced her to think
hard. She concluded that she "could oget married and still see other guys."
o J
Then if she got pregnant, she would "have somebody to blame it on."8
So on the morning of April 11, 1911, Mae West and Frank Wallace were
married by a justice of the peace in Milwaukee. Only seventeen, she lied on
her marriage license and stated that she was eighteen, Wisconsin's legal age
for marriage. She also claimed that her mother was French, stereotypically a
more "exotic" legacy than her Germanic roots. Immediately after the cere-
mony, she made Wallace swear not to tell her parents and to keep the mar-
riage secret once they returned to New York. He claimed the troupe's
manager gave them the night off for a honeymoon, but Mae remembered
that she spent it alone in her room in a noisy hotel. She later vehemently in-
sisted that they had never lived together as man and wife.
In light
o
of her steadfast devotion to her mother,' who would have been
horrified to learn that Mae had taken wedding vows, her marriage to Wai-
O ' O
lace seems uncharacteristic. As her mother knew, marriage could severely

jeopardize Mae's aspirations. Married couples struggled in show business,
and matrimony often terminated the career of one or both partners.
Throughout his life, Wallace insisted that West had married him out of love,
but she always characterized it as a marriage of convenience. Years later her
attitude toward matrimony was apparent. "I don't suppose you believe in
marriage," queried a suitor in her 1933 film I'm No Angel. "Only as a last re-
sort," Mae replied.
THE WAYS H E D O E S I T 3!
It is possible that West may have been, or feared she was, pregnant. When
later responding to questions about her marriage, she always ventured into
the topic of pregnancy. "Getting pregnant was a great disgrace in those days,"
she told one probing interviewer. "I did it [got married] because I was
scared," '
she confessed to another. But Mae also had o great faith in her birth
control method—a silk sponge, regularly washed out, tied to a string. She
bragged she had shared this secret, which was really quite commonplace,
with comedienne Fanny Brice, claiming Brice had several abortions before
she adopted Mae's method.9
West usually chalked up her early marriage to youthful carelessness. For
the first time, Mae was cut off from her mother, and Wallace's tenacity com-
bined with Wood's ominous admonitions may have forced her into a rash de-
cision. Wallace admitted that she agreed to marry him only hours before the
ceremony. A contemporary photograph of West and Wallace shows her
flashing a wedding ring, but she claimed her regrets were immediate.
The tour ended in the summer of 1911. Mae returned to her family in
Brooklyn, and Wallace went back to Queens. Although he kept his promise
and remained silent about their marriage, o '
he began
o
to badger
o
Mae to settle
down with him. She clearly felt no attachment to him. "It's just this physical
thing,"
o'
she remembered tellingo him. "You don't move my J
finer instincts." But
he persisted. Soon Mae realized that to preserve her career and her relation-
ship with her beloved mother, she had to get rid of Frank Wallace.10
Mae broke the news to Wallace that their professional partnership was
over, insisting that her mother had demanded that she go solo. Next, she
' O O '
arranged, or so she claimed, for him to join a road show booked for an ex-
tended tour. Wallace departed reluctantly, and with that, he was out of her
life. "Marriage is a career and acting is a career and you can't mix two ca-
reers," West later rationalized. "An actor's marriage isn't like other mar-
riages.
o
. . . We don't think about marriageo
as something going
o o o
on and on,
with children from generation to generation. It's often just a passing
whim."11
With Wallace out of the way, West worked up a new a song-and-dance
act. She quickly secured a one-night booking at Manhattan's Columbia The-
ater, a popular scouting venue for Broadway producers as well as agents for
vaudeville's prestigious Keith Circuit. On this particular night, Ned Way-
burn was there. But so were the powerful Florenz Ziegfeld and his wife, ac-
tress Anna Held. Some claim that West's turn so captivated them that they
showered her with roses during her finale.
Astonishingly, West maintained that she turned down a subsequent offer
from Ziegfeld.
o
She insisted that his New York Roof Theater was too large o
to
3 2 M A E * W E S T
capture her "facial expressions, gestures, [and] slow, lazy comic manner-
isms." But her claim that Ziegfeld's theater was too large for her seems sus-
pect, for the Columbia Theater was just as big. Rather, according to other
sources, Ziegfeld tried to recruit her for his famous Follies chorus. Cer-
tainly, West had no desire to be just another chorus girl, even if it was for
Ziegfeld's Follies.12
Next, West auditioned with Ned Wayburn for A La Broadway, a comedy
revue for Jesse Lasky's Folies Bergere. A La Broadway was an elaborate en-
deavor created by writer William Le Baron as "a satirical burlesque on all
musical comedies." Le Baron later recalled that Mae, who showed up with
her mother, possessed an overwhelmingly strong voice. Le Baron and Way-
burn decided to use her in a small but significant role as an Irish maid, Mag-
gie O'Hara, a quiet lass planted in a wealthy home to report on the curious
habits of New York's high society. West accepted the role but, she main-
tained, with a warning that she intended to make some changes.
Although West remained confident, rehearsals went badly. She was un-
able to practice her first song, a ballad called "They Are Irish," because Cook
and Lorenz, a comedy team that accompanied her, could not master their
props for the number. Additionally, Jesse Lasky was unimpressed and
wanted to drop her from the production. But Wayburn prevailed and in-
sisted that they give the newcomer a chance. West blamed her problems on
the role. On her own, she recruited a songwriter to rework "They Are Irish"
and transformed the mousey and hardworking Irish maid into a brash and in-
solent Maggie O'Hara. "I played it as a fresh, flip lazy character who acted as
a maid shouldn't," she recalled.13
A La Broadway opened on September 22, 1911, and, according to Mae, she
plunged into her first Broadway show with the verve that marked her entire
career. Her first scene came just after the chorus, costumed in military uni-
forms, finished a burlesque of elaborate Broadway drill numbers. Cook and
Lorenz were still unprepared, and at the last minute Wayburn sent West on
without them. As the chorus stood at attention, she entered and, in a broad
Irish brogue, delivered a sassy version of "They Are Irish." Probably no one
was more surprised than Wayburn and Le Baron when she followed it up with
nine more choruses, each more risque and each in a different dialect. West's
gamble paid off. She scored several encores, right in the middle of the revue.
While most critics panned A La Broadway, concluding that it was "very
poor stuff" devoid of "variety and features to make it a great success," West
received accolades. One reported that she dazzled the audience with "The
Philadelphia Drag," a ragtime parody. The New York Sun noted that "she
danced with considerable grace and originality," and the New York Tribune
O O J '
THE WAY SHE DOES IT 33
praised her as possessing "a bit of a sense of nonsense, which is the very latest
addition to wit." Mae's triumph rested with her style, which was well
matched to Le Baron's satirical intentions. She attributed her success to the
blending of her early influences: "I used all the stage tricks I had learned in
stock training and vaudeville." Indeed, her performance's complexities were
beginning to coalesce. With Maggie O'Hara and her new lyrics, West ex-
plored the malleability of ethnic stereotypes, becoming all and none of them
at the same time. Furthermore, her revision of her part was both overtly and
covertly rebellious. She not only improved the production but also brazenly
asserted control over a role created by a man. West was unique and con-
founded critics, who began to interpret such boldness from her as mascu-
line. "She seems to be a sort of female George M. Cohan," the New York
Evening World explained, "with an amusingly impudent manner and individual
way of nailing her points."14
West was just eighteen, and her first Broadway appearance was a hit. But
A La Broadway was not, folding after eight performances. Fortunately for
West, two of New York's most successful entertainment impresarios, Lee
and J. J. Shubert, were in the audience opening night. Impressed, they cast
her in Vera Viohtta. It was a complicated production, part cornedic operetta
and part variety show, with appearances by blackface comedian Frank Tin-
ney and suggestively clad swimmer Annette Keller man. It also featured, at
an astonishing $4,000 a week, Parisian superstar Gaby Deslys in her first
English-speaking performance in the United States.
To share the stage with Gaby Deslys, an international celebrity, was a
privilege for the young Mae West. Deslys reigned as the French music hall
queen and had revolutionized that venue with her suggestive costumes and
her outlandishly oversized feather headdresses, which became a standard for
chorus girls everywhere. Her voice was weak, but critics celebrated her
breathtaking beauty and accomplished dancing. She was known as the actress
who "made her reputation by losing it," and a U.S. newspaper dubbed her
"the Most Talked About Woman in the World"—both phrases that West
would later borrow for herself. Deslys became the prototype of a tempera-
mental and eccentric star. The media chronicled her extravagant fondness
O
for furs, pet marmosets, emeralds, diamonds, orchids, and pearls. Photogra-
pher and writer Cecil Beaton observed that she "realized the value of over-
doing everything." It was a lesson not lost on Mae West.15
Although Deslys was phony, egotistical, and arrogant, she also controlled
her career wisely, personally negotiating top-dollar salaries and always insist-
ing that shows be built entirely around her. Her assertiveness and conceit
created problems for her co-stars. In addition to run-ins with other featured
34 *M A E * WEST
performers, Deslys immediately clashed with a then unknown blackface

comedic singer named Al Jolson. His contempt for her was obvious, and in
each scene they shared, Jolson upstaged her with wild antics and mugging.
To make matters worse, Violetta's racy and convoluted plot predestined
the show for problems. It told of two couples who flirt with the idea of
swapping partners but instead rediscover their love. West appeared as Made-
moiselle Angelique, a dancer who offers tutorials on the art of lovemaking.
Although the part was modest, it was significant enough for her to rate men-
tion (as "May West") in ads for Violetta's opening.
The Shuberts scheduled Vera Violetta for a tryout on November 17 and 18,
1911, at the Hyperion Theater in New Haven, Connecticut. Notorious for
booking bawdy shows, the Hyperion was a favorite among the football
crowd. And that particular weekend was the Yale-Princeton game, an in-
tense rivalry made more so since the two teams were vying for a champi-
onship.r Violetta,' with its scintillatingo humor and Parisian star,3 seemed a
fitting celebration for Yale's almost certain victory. Friday's opening night
proved it so. One New Haven reviewer commented that "the Hyperion man-
agement could have chosen no more suitable show to brave the streamers,
O
the catcalls, and the implacable applause of football night." He especially

praised Deslys: "She has come; she the little French dancer who dances king-
doms to destruction like Nero fiddlingo at the burningo of Rome." Accordingo
to another she was "cheered from the time she first appeared on stage until
after the fall of the last curtain." Sure that they had a hit, the Hyperion man-
agement doubled ticket prices for Saturday night's postgame performance.16
Saturday afternoon, however, several New Haven residents complained to
authorities that Violetta was "vulgar
o
and suggestive."
co
That eveningo
the rpolice
chief informed the Hyperion's manager, E. P. Eldridge, that he was closing
the show. Eldridge protested and the show went on, after the manager
promised to downsize Deslys's and West's roles. The chief warned him that
officers would be stationed in the audience and would arrest everyone asso-
ciated with Violetta if players did or said anything risque. Squeezed for time,
Eldridge decided to cut out all of Violetta's dialogue and restrict cast mem-
bers to performing only their musical numbers. The controversial star at-
traction, Deslys, would go on last.
When the curtain rang up, the Hyperion was packed with Yale fans, fresh
from an afternoon of football and drink, smarting from their disappointing
loss to Princeton. The show began late and then moved rapidly through Vio-
letta's songs and dances. Everything went smoothly—until West's entrance.
For her turn, she had obtained an imitation Deslys gown with an outrageous
headdress. When West took the stage, the audience, initially mistaking her
for the star, "clapped, roared, and practically stood on their chairs." She then
proceeded with a "little impromptu singing" that, while rated "objectionable"
by one reviewer, drove the crowd wild. Deslys had been upstaged. When she
made her entrance at the show's end, confused fans "didn't know whether to
applaud or not." West claimed that, in the end, the woman celebrated as the
"sensation of two continents" was given only a lukewarm reception.17
Anticipating at least another hour of entertainment, the already restless
audience remained in their seats. Then the orchestra rose and departed, and a
call went up for Eldridge. When the manager did not appear, several angry
students jumped onto the stage and began ripping down the curtains. Others
started to tear up the orchestra seats and throw chairs out of the boxes. The
production crew pushed onto the stage and turned fire hoses on the audience.
According to the press, several women, infuriated at having their gowns ru-
ined, joined in the mayhem. One even ripped out an entire row of seats, hurl-
ing them to the floor. Eventually the crew forced the audience into the
streets, where the mob continued its rampage, breaking windows, throwing
rocks, and smashing the theater's sign. Police reinforcements arrived and
"rushed pell
r mell into the crowd to and began clubbing o the students right
o and
left." At the end of the melee, the Hyperion had sustained over $ i ,000 in
damage, and authorities had arrested several popular student athletes.
For months following o
Violetta's visit,' New Haven fought
o
over who was re-
sponsible for the uprising. The theater blamed the police; the police blamed
the theater. Yale students and administrators blamed both the authorities and
the theater. Several community leaders attributed the disturbance to Ameri-
can theater's degenerate state and called for censorship of New Haven's
stages. In New York City, the entertainment community laid some of the re-
sponsibility at the feet of a young, brash, virtually unknown actress, Mae
West. Variety commented, "It is said that May was right in the middle of that
fray, if she did not start it."18
On the train back to New York City, an infuriated Deslys threatened to
quit the show and return to Paris. The Shuberts panicked. She represented a
considerable investment and promised healthy box office returns. Almost
immediately, Variety announced West's sudden departure from Violetta, re-
porting she was suffering from pneumonia. While West may have been ill,
Deslys definitely would not have tolerated her upstaging antics.
West's stunt could have been simply youthful high jinks; certainly her ac-
tions were foolish for an actress so obsessed with her career. Yet, while it
may have been bad judgment, her mockery of Deslys, in many ways, was
predictable. Since childhood she had used mimicry as a tool for criticism.
Deslys was a vain, disingenuous, and pretentious star, a perfect target for
36 M A E * WEST
Mae's rebellious trickery. At some level, she must have known that upstaging
Deslys would have disastrous effects, but her desire for attention and her in-
clination to challenge authority won out. Mae apparently had only one re-
gret about the incident—her timing. In retrospect, she lamented because
she had not held back until the show reached Manhattan.19
However, the short time West spent with Vera Violetta did pay off. The
Parisian entertainer provided her with a role model for celebrity. It was
Deslys's posturing that West both rejected and embraced as the basis for her
stardom. She had already been drawn to stereotyped French allure, and
Deslys reinforced that mystique. Throughout her career, she borrowed from
Deslys for her performance as a public figure. Mae West would become both
a star and a parody of a star.
After Vera Violetta, West returned to vaudeville. By January 1912, she had
put together an act with two friends from A La Broadway, dancers Bobby
O'Neill and Harry Laughlin. They played as "Mae West and Her Boys" and
later as "Mae West and the Girards." Mae was the act's centerpiece, the
"boys" decked out in elegant evening dress functioning only as a backdrop.
The trio sang and danced to ragtime. West soloed with a cooch dance, de-
scribed by one reviewer as an "enchanting, seductive, sin-promising wiggle"
made even more tantalizing by a dress with a breakaway shoulder strap. For
their finish,' the three performed
r a ragtime
o song
o and a novel dance routine
while seated in chairs.
Variety found the act coarse, one correspondent commenting that for
West "the burlesque stage is her place and she can make a name there." Sime
Silver man, the publication's founder, declared the chair routine "a peach and
funny," but he warned that the act was too risque for audiences outside Man-
hattan. Writing under the byline Sime, he declared West a "rough
soubrette"—in entertainment lingo, a woman who attempted songs,
dances, and jokes that were considered the domain of male performers. His
pronouncements were critical, for Variety often influenced bookings for new
acts. Sime's tastes were extremely conservative; he expressed not only tradi-
tional gender expectations but also strong class biases. Performers who were
a little too raucous properly belonged in entertainment venues patronized
by the working class. Sime insisted that vaudeville and Broadway be the pre-
serve of tasteful amusements that drew the better people.
While influential, Sime did not always reflect popular trends. In fact, Mae
West and the Girards won accolades from other critics. One praised the act
as "clever" and "novel," noting that "the audience took more than kindly to
them and gave them the unanimous stamp of approval at the end of the act."
Another reviewer noted that West "with a Gaby Deslys costume and Eva
THE WAY S H E D O E S I T 37
Tanguay line of business brought down the house." In fact, the act was so
promising that they quickly secured a contract with Frank Bohm, one of
vaudeville's most successful agents. Bohm was twenty-nine, smart, and ag-
gressive. He booked acts for the Loew Circuit, reputable second-tier vaude-
ville and considered a good opportunity for new talent. With his help, Mae
West and the Girards obtained some choice bookings, o '
even performing
r o
at
Loew's best theater, the American Roof.20
Under Bohm, Mae West and the Girards did well for vaudeville newcom-
ers. In addition to good and steady bookings, he also arranged for the team
to plug a song, "Cuddle Up and Cling to Me," and appear on the cover of its
sheet music. West credited Bohm with helping her to channel her talents
productively.
-T j "I was a hard boiled,7 wise-cracking
o kid,7 doing
o anything
y o to oget a
laugh," she insisted. She remembered Bohm pointing out his office window
to a comedian on the street below surrounded by acquaintances laughing
heartily at his jokes. "You don't see Frank Tinney or Ed Wynn throwing it
away like that," he admonished her. "Don't be a sidewalk comedian; save it
for the public."
I
She also claimed that before longO Bohm began
O
pressuringD her
1
to go out on her own. He convinced her that she could make more money in
a single act, and by the end of March she dropped the Girards. She claimed
they took it well, one remarking to her, "You're a great girl and a great act. It
isn't what you do—it's how you do it." Mae incorporated his appraisal into a
speech during her finales.21
Next, Bohm negotiated for West to appear in Ziegfeld's A Winsome Widow,
slated to open in early April 1912 at the Moulin Rouge Theater. A revival of
a popular 18905 musical comedy, Ziegfeld's latest show featured a stunning
cast, including Fanny Brice, dancer Leon Errol, and vaudeville's famous
Dolly Sisters. In A Winsome Widow, the central character falsely believes that
he has only a few weeks to live. He decides to spend his remaining days en-
joying the high life and chasing young women. In the show, West had a minor
role, Le Petite Daffy, and performed a ragtime tune and a cooch.
Although anxiously anticipated, A Winsome Widow received mixed reviews.
While the New York Clipper deemed it "a spectacle of gayety and gorgeous-
ness," the New York Times complained about its "sameness." Sime panned it, in-
sisting it was "at least forty minutes too long, draggy with superfluous
people." One of those was West, whom he reprimanded for doing "Turkey,"
show business slang for the cheapest and bawdiest of burlesque acts. "Just a
bit too coarse for this $2 audience," Sime concluded.22
A Winsome Widow lasted a respectable 172 performances. But West was
not there to see the production to its end. Only five days after the premiere,
she announced she was quitting the show to return to vaudeville. She gave no
38 M A E * WEST
explanation, but her sudden departure coincided with a significant change in

Bohm's situation. He had just accepted a position as an agent for the big-time
Keith Circuit. Bohm's good fortune opened the door for West to appear at
vaudeville's most prestigious theaters. Leaving a Ziegfeld production was
risky, but working the Keith Circuit promised much more than a small part
in a musical revue rated so lukewarmly. Sime actually praised her for bailing
out: "That she escaped . . . [the Ziegfeld show] evidences some strength of
character."23
Bohm must have considered West one of his best acts. That spring he
took out a half-page ad in Variety, announcing that Mae West, the "Scintillat-
ingo Singing
o o
Comedienne," '
had been booked at Hammerstein's Victoria The-
ater, one of Keith's best houses. For her debut as a single act, he encouraged
Mae to splurge on two new, eye-catching gowns. She chose not only the
most luxurious but, reminiscent of Deslys, also the most unusual. One gown
was made of rhinestones, and the other was tight and slit from toe to thigh.
She purchased a brocade coat, its train lined with white fox. It was a pricey
wardrobe, and Bohm, who was rapidly becoming wealthy, may have helped
her out in some way.
West's solo debut was only J
eleven minutes long. O
Her act consisted of
dances and songs es that she delivered, ' like Bert Williams,
' in a "talkative fash-
ion." She opened with "Parisienne" and followed with two dance tunes, "Per-
sonality" and "Dancing-Prancing," maintaining a black presence by ragging
them. The act climaxed with "Rap, Rap, Rap," which she delivered seated
and playing "the bones," an African instrument that had become a minstrel
show staple. She then ended abruptly, rising and launching into a cooch.
The competition was stiff on the night of West's debut. The bill con-
tained fourteen acts, an unusually large number, with several single female
song-and-dance turns. Overall response to Mae's act was tepid. Sime labeled
her a "freak," charging that she lacked "that touch of class that is becoming
requisite nowadays in the first class houses." The New York Clipper alleged that
"the very palpable aid of a number of'friends' in the audience" helped her
along. But she did win praise from some reviewers and the audience for
"Rap, Rap, Rap." Billboard commented, "Miss West sits and uses the 'bones'
in a manner that might be envied by a minstrel end man."24
Significantly, the African-American cultural presence echoed throughout
most of West's debut. Freed from male partners, she asserted increasing
control over her performance and began borrowing more heavily from both
original and corrupted forms of African-American performance. Her appro-
priation of black culture was furthered by its ever-growing popularity dur-
ingo
the I Q-^ I O S . Although
o
still facingo racism and discrimination,' several
African-American performers had broken through to become stars. Tap

dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Aida Overton Walker, wife of the re-
cently deceased George Walker, had thriving careers on the Keith Circuit.
James Reese Europe, founder of the Clef Club, a union of African-American
musicians, was in wide demand, scoring music for and accompanying the
white dancing duo Vernon and Irene Castle. Songwriters like Sheldon
Brooks, who composed Sophie Tucker's "Some of These Days," also enjoyed
success. While degrading stereotypes still abounded, white performers and
the public clamored for more African-American entertainment.
Although African-American culture subversively undermined the domi-
nance of European-American culture, most whites never went beyond the
mere consumption of black music and dance. But West had a deeper appre-
ciation for the power of African-American performance. She viewed it with
great respect and as an evolving art form. She recalled that her early inspira-
tion came from "the black man's sound and we copied it because it was the
greatest. They'd been developing it for years." West was striving to enact
blackness as she comprehended it, no longer in blackface but rather in what
could be called whiteface. The ragtime-singing, bones-playing "Parisienne"
cooch dancer was just beginning to project an indeterminacy that challenged
the whole idea of racial fixity so critical to the ideology of white racism.25
West tinkered with her act.' revising o
it throughout
o
the summer and into
the fall of 1912. Most vaudevillians sought a single, steady act; change was
costly not only in time but also in money, since new material was often pur-
chased. But the energetic nineteen-year-old Mae West sought perfection,
adding and subtracting from her routine, sometimes just to suit specific au-
diences. In Philadelphia, possibly to placate family-time theater managers in-
tolerant of cooching, o'
she finished the act with a "muscle dance in a sitting
o
position." Bohm promoted her appearance there with handbills proclaiming,
"It is all in the way she does it and her way is all her own." Later, she added
two new songs, "Good Night Nurse" and "It's an Awful Way to Make a Liv-
ing," by popular vaudeville skit man Thomas Gray. (On the cover of "Good
Night Nurse" she posed half-smiling in a nurse's frock.) By December 1912,
when she played Keith's Union Square Theater in New York City, she had
resurrected her impersonations. The audience reaction was favorable. Variety
noted that she had grown "taller and stouter" and observed happily that she
was no longer o
"tearingo loose the theater foundations."26
As a whole, it had been a good year for Mae West. While her Broadway
career petered out, she had successfully broken into first-class vaudeville and
played engagements in some of the country's premier houses. She was not a
headliner, often occupying the bill's second spot—traditional for single, un-
4 0 A E * W E S T *
known female performers. But she also occasionally played fourth or sixth in
the lineup, respectable positions for a novice. At a young age, she was doing
well; she claimed that Bohm eventually negotiated a salary o f $ 3 £ o t o $ £ o o a
week for her. This may be inflated, but Bohm also provided her with some
surreptitious income. During their weeks off, he secretly booked his Keith
performers
r in small-time vaudeville. Writer Dana Rush remembered seeing o
West at Pittsburgh's Family Theater, a small-time house owned by Clarence
W. Morgenstern. Rush described her as "one of the best ragtime singers that
O O O
ever hit the Family Theater." Small time was a grueling five performances a
day, and Bohm's practices were flagrant violations of Keith's exclusive con-
trol policy, but the added bookings provided the West family with even
more income. It appears that Mae dutifully sent some of her earnings home.
Apparently, her parents decided to invest it in property; West claimed that
her father went into real estate the very year she signed up with Bohm.27
Over the next two years, West bounced between the Keith Circuit and
small-time houses. Much of this time she spent on the road, playing in cities
and towns nationwide. While having steady work was considered a blessing
by any vaudevillian, tours were punishing. Performers played a different
town every week and often did not know until the last minute where they
were going next. Circuits provided only cheap transportation, reserving
crowded and uncomfortable coach cars on the trains. Since payday was not
until the week's end,' vaudevillians lived on credit. Hours were long, o
hotels
?
were noisy, and some theaters even charged performers extra to use dress-
ingo rooms.
Although vaudeville tours were exhausting and lonely, they allowed Mae
to observe a wide range of entertainment styles. Of course, there were jug-
glers and dog acts. But she also shared the bill with some of the era's biggest
O O Oo
names, including comedian Eddie Foy and the beautiful Evelyn Nesbitt
Thaw, whose jealous husband, Harry, had killed her lover, the famous archi-
tect Stanford White. Once Mae became famous, she occasionally boasted
that Harry Thaw, whose mother's maiden name was Copley, was a cousin.
However, the wealthy Thaw family never claimed her.
Billed as "America's Youngest Temperamental Comedian" and "the Firefly
of Vaudeville," West was usually well received by both critics and audiences,
although, as one Keith manager observed, "the men liked her better than the
O ' O '
women." On occasion, some critics found her too brazen for polite vaude-
ville. While touring in 191 ?, she plugged a song titled "And Then" that she
O -* * 1 OO O
delivered carefully, she said, to allow the audience to use its "imagination of
course." One reviewer did not like the picture his imagination conjured up
and declared Mae West "plainly vulgar. This woman is all that is coarse in
THE WAYS H E D O E S I T 41
Eva Tanguay without the player's ability." Even though he admitted that "the
audience howled for more," he called for censorship of West's act. And while
she continued to encounter resistance—one Keith representative forced her
to cut her line "The manager said he would take me out to lunch and see
O
what he was doing for me"—almost everyone agreed she was unique. A
Columbus, Ohio, Keith agent described her as "possessing unusual individu-
ality and style that is peculiarly her own. She is distinctively different from
any single woman I have ever seen."28
Some of this derived from her fearless exhibition of blatant sexuality that,
when combined with her pastiche of impersonations, ragtime tunes, and un-
usual dance steps, produced an act that while engaging was sometimes be-
wildering. In late 1913, a Keith manager in Philadelphia commented that
"the audience did not at first understand but finally approved" of Mae. Inter-
estingly, on several occasions, reviewers characterized her, even after she had
toned down, as a "nut act," a term for wild and clownish performers. But
several reviewers also reported that West did not "go crazy" a la Tanguay or
others: "She is not volcanic in style and manifests no inclination to whoop
things up." Apparently, West's subtle zaniness was simply so different that it
defied categorization.29
Throughout 1913 and 1914, West further refined her style and continued
to move up on the bill. In October 1913, she had one of the top spots at
Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theater in Manhattan. The New York Clipper praised
her as "one of the most vivacious soubrettes that has ograced the vaudeville
stage in many moons." Another critic remarked on the changes in her act,
noting she had reduced the songs and increased the patter. "She put it over in
a manner to unmistakably indicate that this is her forte," he commented. She
also further slowed her pace. In Ohio, a house manager protested against
Keith's recommendation he bill her as "Harem Scarum," '
suggesting
oo o
"the
Nonchalant, Unique Artist" instead. "I used to have to work on the audience,
appeal to them with little private gestures, twists of my head, the way I
spoke a word, or winked over a song line. . . . I had an easy, nonchalant man-
ner, an air of indifference," she remembered. "That was my style and I could-
n't change it."30
West's syncretic style, which drew from vaudeville, burlesque, melo-
drama, minstrelsy, and African-American culture, continued to befuddle
critics. They persisted in their attempts to define her within some common
tradition. Some continued to attribute a maleness to her performances. One
theater manager insisted that West used a "boyish, careless method of getting
her stuff over," and others still compared her to George M. Cohan, one not-
ing that she had adopted his unique manner of dance. But that only rein-
4 2 M A E * W E S T
forced her links to black performance; Cohan's distinctive steps were bor-
rowed from the cakewalk. On one occasion, a theater manager even equated
West with blackface comedian Frank Tinney.
Yet West also evoked comparisons to Eva Tanguay. In 1913, the New York
Tribune remarked that West made "herself popular by singing a repertory of
'I Don't Care' songs and appearing in a dazzling series of low and behold
gowns." That year, after a competitor lured Tanguay away from Keith, Bohm
began pushing West as her replacement, billing her as "the Eva Tanguay of
Vaudeville." But critics, theater managers, and West herself also repeatedly
emphasized that she had "a style all her own." In fact, she even incorporated
into her act a song called "I've Got a Style All My Own."31
By late 1913, West was also promoting herself as "the Original Brinkley
Girl." Based on a character created by artist Nell Brinkley, the Brinkley Girl
was the successor to the Gibson Girl, illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's im-
age of youthful womanhood. The Brinkley Girl cast off the previous genera-
tion's corseted shirtwaists in favor of lightweight, flowing gowns. Visually,
she epitomized idealized white femininity with distinctively WASPish fea-
tures. Brinkley's illustrations, serialized with her commentary in the nation's
newspapers, urged women to use their charms to control men but warned
them never to lose their hearts. It was a mixed message, but, rendered by a
woman, it spoke to West's sensibilities.
West's absorption of Brinkley's creation contributed to her continuing
construction of a racially ambiguous stage persona. On the one hand, she
embraced whiteness, borrowing so much from Deslys that a reviewer in
1914 raved as if she were the French music hall queen herself:
Mae, chic, dainty, a Parisienne from the heels of her tiny slippers to the
crown of her golden head, has truly as she claims "a style of her own." Fresh
from the hands of Parisian modistes, merry Mae sings her songs and deliv-
ers her impromptu dialogue with a pleasing individuality that marks her
for an even higher place in the professional field than she occupies now.
Yet she did not let her whiteness go uncontested. She continued to perform
ragtime and, that year, organized a band, the Mae West Syncopators. As she
matured, she was becoming more skillful at playing with extremes, toying
with society's construction of both gender and race.32
On stage
o
West was unconventional:' offstage,o '
too,' she struck her fellow
vaudevillians as daringo and eccentric. Charlie Abbott,' who toured with her,'
observed that she "kept to herself but she gloried in the stir she caused wher-
ever she went. Sometimes she played next to closing, the best spot on the
43
bill, but even so traditional vaudevillians made her feel like an outsider."
Vaudevillians were highly competitive as well as cliquish, and West's sugges-
tiveness combined with her aloofness induced others to regard her cau-
tiously. However, she did not lack company. Her autobiography implies that
on tour she received plenty of attention from male townsfolk and choice
male performers.33
One of these was Guido Deiro, "the Wizard of the Accordion," whom she
met when they shared a bill in Detroit in August 1913. An international
celebrity, he and his brother, Pietro, introduced the piano accordion to
America. Deiro was handsome and dashing; according to some, he possessed
"a magnetic personality." In white tie and tails, he performed classical and
popular music, always winning ovations from the crowds. "Temperamental,
talented, he loses himself in his own melodies, becomes oblivious of his audi-
ences," one critic reported. Deiro was gregarious and flamboyant. Waiters
who pleased him received huge tips, portions of which Mae and Pietro pock-
eted behind his back.34
Mae confessed that she fell passionately for the charming accordionist.
True, Deiro was a headliner and could easily help her, but her attraction to
him was not entirely careerist. For the first time, she later claimed, she was
in love. By her account, Deiro was equally infatuated. Indeed, after playing
Detroit, he arranged to be booked with her in Rochester, New York, the
' O
following week. Over the next two seasons, West and Deiro attempted to
be together as much as possible. At first, joint bookings were difficult to
schedule. In the summer of 1914, it became even more challenging: Keith
fired Bohm for double-bookingo his acts in small-time vaudeville. He re-
turned with Mae to Loew's. Things improved when Deiro followed, his
Loew contract specifying joint bookings with Mae.
Between July 1914 and February 191 £, West and Deiro appeared on the
same bill in theaters throughout the Loew Circuit. Reportedly, Mae even
worked the accordion into her act, pretending to play as Deiro stood in the
wings supplying the real music. (It was Pietro's instrument, and he later
found it for sale in a pawnshop.) West and Deiro became so closely identi-
fied that many in the business mistook them for a married couple. Although
some later remembered that they both carried on other affairs, Mae insisted
that, for the first time in her life, she felt jealous.
West, who had remained detached from previous lovers, was consumed by
Deiro. She found him exciting, passionate, and indulgent; while on the road,
she contracted the flu, and Deiro nursed her back to health. But Mae's happy
recollections of Deiro's tenderness were countered by her admission that he
had an extremely volatile side. He was possessive and flew into jealous rages,
44 MAE * WEST
verbally and sometimes physically assaulting other men who expressed even
passing interest in Mae. He spied on her, listened in on her calls, and loomed
over her constantly. She told of tireless efforts to keep him ignorant of other
men, even those who were simply acquaintances, fearing his reaction.
Deiro's behavior had gotten him into trouble in the past. In 1912, to avoid
prosecution on a statutory rape charge, he agreed to marry Julia Tatro, also a
performer. Whether or not Mae knew of Deiro's marriage before, she cer-
tainly learned of it in February 1914 when the police arrived at Chicago's
Palace Theater, where the couple was performing, and arrested Deiro on a
warrant issued by Tatro, who was seeking financial support. It seemed to
have little impact on his relationship with Mae. He immediately paid his bail
and returned to the road with her, and Mae claimed that he began to pro-
pose they marry. Deiro even sought out her parents, asking their permission.
(Of course, none of them knew that she was already married.) Tillie stiffly
refused. She wanted her daughter
o
to remain focused on her career.35
Mae complied with her mother's wishes, as usual, but also continued her
affair with Deiro. At Christmas 1914, Bohm featured the two in a joint ad
bragging of their forty weeks of bookings for Loew's. Shortly afterward,
Mae's hard work and sacrifice finally paid off. In January 191 £, she returned
to the American Roof Theater, this time as the headliner. For this appearance,
in addition to her trademark "I've Got a Style All My Own," she performed
several characterizations and Sheldon Brooks's "Ballin' the Jack." The New York
Clipper rated it Mae's best number, noting that it "won her the desired ap-
plause." Sime remained unconverted. He felt that Deiro, also on the bill,
should have occupied the featured spot, noting that Mae had "repressed her
exuberance somewhat, but could stand a trifle more repression."36
West was twenty-one and had reached a pinnacle in her early career. Af-
ter the American Roof date, she spent the next several weeks with Deiro on
tour in the Northeast. Then suddenly, in early March, the couple vanished
from the vaudeville routes. In April, Deiro reappeared briefly back on the
Keith Circuit. But West was nowhere to be found. That summer Variety re-
ported that she was on her way to California with a Universal Pictures con-
tract; nothing resulted from this trip. That fall, Deiro resurfaced, playing
some of Keith's best theaters.37
This lull in West's career corresponded to a general downturn in vaude-
ville, for the burgeoning film industry was luring audiences away. Addition-
ally, two of vaudeville's pioneers, B. F. Keith, founder of the Keith Circuit,
and Willie Hammer stein, passed away. As others jockeyed for power, cir-
cuits cut salaries, increased workloads, and laid off performers. The White
Rats, the vaudevillians' union, protested the changes, inducing a standoff be-
THE WAY SHE DOES IT 45
tween theater management and performers. White Rats activists were

blacklisted and their contracts canceled; the union hired gangsters to protect
its members. Although excluded from membership in the all-male White
Rats, West may have found her career impeded by her support for the
group. In the summer of 1916, Variety reported that she had appeared in a
special benefit show organized by the White Rats for the prisoners of Sing
Sing. It was a very public link to the activist entertainers' union.
West may also have been adversely affected by changes in Frank Bohm's sit-
uation. In March 191£, just as she disappeared from vaudeville, Bohm signed
up Singer's Midgets, a miniature circus with a troupe of over thirty little peo-
ple. Bohm must have felt they had a spectacular future. He invested his entire
savings in the act and dedicated all of his energies to promoting it. As a result,
his stable of performers floundered. Deiro, a widely celebrated talent, easily
returned to big-time vaudeville. West was not so lucky. She spent Christmas
191 ^ in Pittsburgh, celebrating with the players of the Victoria Burlesque
Theater, a small-time house on the American Circuit, distinctly raunchier than
her former burlesque employer, Columbia. Before long, the situation looked
even more grim. On March 7, 1916, Bohm died of tuberculous of the spine. A
few weeks later,7 West surfaced again
o
at Pittsburgh's
o
Victoria Theater,7 which
was presenting a musical review called A jaunt in Joyland. Without Bohm's
careful attention, she had, in one year, gone from being a headliner in big-time
vaudeville to performing in cheap, third-rate burlesque.38
Exactly what impact this had on her relationship with Deiro is unclear.
However, although Frank Bohm's distractions led to Mae and Deiro's profes-
sional separation, nothing else suggests that their affair ended. The changes
in their circumstances may have compelled Deiro to become even more pos-
sessive and determined to marry Mae regardless of prior entanglements. Ac-
cording to West, at some point Deiro, like Frank Wallace, began to pressure
her to abandon her career and settle down. She claimed she loved him, and
his proposal, which was impossible to accept, caused her deep distress. Al-
though she attempted to hide her feelings from her mother, Tillie had grown
increasingly suspicious. It was not long before her worries were confirmed.
Mae maintained that one night Deiro, after a jealous confrontation with
Joseph Schenck, a Loew Circuit boss, stormed over to the Wests', demand-
ing Mae's hand in marriage. The Wests firmly rebuffed him. Tillie was
blunt: "I'm afraid you'll harm Mae in a fit of jealous temper." While her con-
cerns over his abusive disposition were valid, she was also committed to see-
ing that Mae's career always came first.
Tillie became determined to undermine Mae's relationship with Deiro.
Knowing her daughter's stubbornness, at first she approached it indirectly.
46 M A E * WEST
"Mother pointed out other married couples to me," Mae remembered,

"showed me how their lives were wasted. She didn't nag o
me. She never did."
But Mae remained conflicted and spent months sorting out her feelings, dis-
cussing them for hours with her mother. Finally, Tillie directly expressed
disapproval of Deiro, telling Mae he was not "good enough." "She explained
that I was young
J o
and awful full of emotions. She said that was natural but that
I could use them to be very famous or waste them on the first man."39
How long the relationship survived under Tillie's enormous pressure is
not certain. One source remembered that the affair lasted about four years,
commentingo that it was "a record for Guido."40 But Tillie was determined to
distract Mae. She may have even used Mae's sister, Mildred. Tillie had
pushed Mildred into performing as an amateur under the stage name of Bev-
erly West. In the summer of 1916, Tillie insisted that Mae and Beverly de-
velop a sister act. Perhaps she hoped the two would keep an eye on each
other, for Beverly had problems too. She was spirited, fun-loving, and free-
spoken—and at seventeen already a hard drinker.
"Mae West and Sister" opened with a duet, "I Want to Be Loved in an Old
Fashioned Way." Next came a musical skit—ironically, on marriage—two
more songs, and Mae's cooch. Then, while Beverly sang, Mae exited,
changed, and returned in male attire. For their finish, they performed Shel-
don Brooks's "Walkin' the Dog." Mae closed with a speech: "I am pleased,
ladies and gentlemen, you like my new act. It's the first time I have appeared
with my sister. They all like her, especially the boys, who always fall for her,
but that's where I come in—I always take them away from her."
The sisters tried out their act at Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theater in Man-
hattan. Sime remained contemptuous. "Unless Miss West can tone down her
stage presence in every way," he wrote, "she just might as well hop right out
of vaudeville into burlesque." He suggested that if she continued to be so
bold, she consider appearing in "men's dress altogether."41
Although trade papers fail to confirm it, West maintained that the sister
act secured a twelve-week road tour. She also remembered it as a painful ex-
perience. The sisters shared an uneasy relationship, Beverly resentful of liv-
ing in her sister's shadow. Additionally, she did not subscribe to Mae's work
ethic and took advantage of the freedoms offered on tour. After perfor-
O JT
mances, she disappeared with male admirers, sometimes staying out all night
and showing up, still drunk, just before curtain time. Virtually a teetotaler,
Mae grew impatient. She scolded Beverly and lined their hotel room floors
with crumpled newspapers, bellowing, "I hear you," when her sister at-
tempted to sneak in early in the morning. Eventually, she summoned Tillie
to take Beverly home. Mae remembered finishing the tour alone, using a
dummy as her partner. Whether or not that was true, Mae had failed to re-
gain momentum. In the fall of 1916, Variety announced she would appear as a
man in an act under an assumed name. Mae then vanished from the New
York entertainment scene for almost a year and a half.42
It is likely that Mae had acquiesced to her mother's wishes and decided to
make a final break with Deiro. Fearing violent retaliation, she slipped out of
towrn without a word to him. The Wests foiled his attempts to contact her,
keeping her location a secret. On her part, she was relieved to have escaped
him but fought o
her urge
o
to rekindle the affair,' rememberingo her obligation
o
to
her mother.
It was a difficult time for the twenty-three-year-old Mae West. "If I have
made myself seem hard and casual," she wrote candidly in her autobiography,
"it was a defense I raised against all the world." Mae may have experienced
difficulty with men before, and her selection of the abusive Deiro revealed
her ongoing insecurities, but after the demise of their relationship, she grew
ever more detached. This failed love affair was a turning point in her life; she
was prepared to take her mother's philosophy to the extreme. "From that
time on, I have only thought of Mae West," she told one journalist. "I have
thought only of myself. Nothin' else mattered. Men have been important only
as they could help me help Mae West." While Mae's public and private selves
would always be somewhat intertwined, at this juncture she had come to re-
gard the performer, the career actress Mae West, as a distinct persona, often
referring to that component of her identity in the third person. But in some
ways, Mae West the real person no longer counted; personal wants and needs
had to be submerged. It was only the performance that mattered.43
West spent most of the next eighteen months based in Chicago, perform-
ing on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit's western routes. She may have even
worked for a short time as a male impersonator, but before long she was
back to her standard routine of songs, dances, comedic monologues, and the
cooch. While being stuck outside of New York City, the era's entertainment
capital, impeded her career, she recognized her time in Chicago as one of the
most critical periods in her professional development. Her exile in the
Windy City became a furious phase of reinventing herself and her perfor-
mance. Here, she discovered the key components of her stage persona; not
surprisingly, all were rooted in African-American traditions.
West's arrival in Chicago coincided with the Great Migration, a time of
O O '
growth and change for the African-American community. African Ameri-

cans were leaving the South for the North by the hundreds of thousands,
pushed by virulent racism and pulled by job opportunities in industries gear-
ing up to support the First World War, which had broken out in Europe in
48 * MAE * WEST
1914. Chicago was one of the most popular destinations; African Americans
from all regions of the South gathered in the Windy City, bringing with them
different varieties of black culture. When West reached Chicago, the city's
African-American community already boasted a lively nightlife with clubs and
theaters where black entertainers from across the country performed. She pa-
tronized these nightspots and was influenced by this explosion of black cul-
ture. Out of this milieu, she adopted three components of African-American
music and dance to serve as the foundation of her stage presence.
The first of these was jazz, which was quickly displacing ragtime as the
African-American community's dominant musical form. By the time West
arrived in Chicago, the city had become a jazz mecca, and this new, energetic
musical form was so popular that it permeated white as well as black night-
clubs. Improvisational in nature, jazz depended on a series of revised riffs that
some have linked to the African-American practice of signification. West was
immediately attracted to jazz; it fit well with her impromptu manner and her
subversive nature. "Jazz suited me," she remarked. "I liked the beat and emo-
tions." She organized another band for her act—this time a full-fledged jazz
band composed of musicians she recruited from Chicago clubs.44
Second, and just as important, she appropriated heavily from the blues,
beginning her evolution into a blues singer. Like jazz, the blues had arrived
in Chicago with African-American immigrants fleeing the South. Descended
in part from the African-American tradition of spirituals, the blues carry
double, sometimes triple meanings conveying messages of resistance and re-
bellion. Since childhood, West had been attracted to the flexibility of and
the multiple messages in language, but the blues' appeal ran even deeper.
Not just laments of lost love, the blues interrogate existence, probing life's
passages and meaning. As scholar Houston Baker asserts, the blues explore
"experiencing the experience." They go beyond simply relating life's events
and express the feelings and emotions of how life is understood and appre-
hended. Baker contends that blues singers become "translators" who furnish
a variety of interpretations of a life story and its circumstances. As a result,
the blues singer becomes a mediator, and the blues become "a mediational
site" where conflicts are initiated, explored, and resolved, only to be initi-
ated again.
O
In a sense, then, the blues singer
7 7
O
acts as a trickster and the blues
function as the trickster's language. It was precisely the vehicle that West
had been seeking. The blues provided her with a voice that reaffirmed but
resisted the dominant culture. She understood the dualism of the blues and
embraced it as her musical signature.45
Just before she left Chicago, West stumbled onto a third compelling
African-American cultural manifestation. One night she joined some friends
at The Elite No. i , a nightspot located in the heart of the black entertain-
ment district on Chicago's South Side that also drew many white patrons. It
was here, while the band played "Can House Blues," that West witnessed
African-American couples dancing the shimmy. She was captivated. "They
got up from the tables, got out to the dance floor, and stood in one spot with
hardly any movement of the feet, just shook their shoulders, torsos, breasts,
and pelvises."
The shimmy was not new. Scholars trace its origins to West Africa, con-
tending it evolved into its celebrated form in African-American "jooks," or
dance halls, just after 1900. By the 19108, it had made its way into vaude-
ville through a few white female shimmy dancers. Certainly West must
have encountered it before visiting o
The Elite No. i. But for some reason,'
seeingo it done byJ African Americans gaveo
her a new awareness of the
shimmy. She was mesmerized, finding both humor and "a naked, aching,
sensual agony" in the dance.46
While West's recollection that she and her companions "were terribly
amused by it" smacked of racism, she also correctly deciphered the shimmy's
dualistic nature. On the one hand, it was a dance that exuded sexuality. On
the other hand, African Americans also perceived it as comedic. The shimmy
contained an"in-group satire" for African-American spectators. The sight of
African-American men doing a shake dance, something performed only by
women in white American culture, was considered hysterical. Indeed, sev-
eral African-American comedians, including Bert Williams, performed a
shimmy as a parody of a white female cooch dance.
For Mae West, the shimmy proved irresistible; it was both serious and
funny, underscoring and parodying sensuality. The day after her visit to The
Elite No. i, she substituted a shimmy for her standard cooch finale. "The the-
ater began to hum," she remembered. "It was amazing and daring and it started
a huge round of applause and whistles from the balcony." The following week,
she departed Chicago on tour and continued to perform her shimmy, receiving
equally enthusiastic encouragement from audiences. Mae West's days as a
cooch dancer were over. Her European grind had been displaced by the
African-American shake. West had discovered a satisfactory combination of
African-American music and dance for her act, for her stage identity. It pro-
vided her with a voice and a language to speak in. Finally, in Chicago, during
the Great Migration, Mae West, the stage persona, was born.47
T * H * R * E * E
Shimadonna
The shimmy idea seems made to order for an entertainer of

Mae's type. . . . Honest to goodness, that shimmering, black
outfit she displays during her turn is of a gelatine design. . . .
And when Mae swings into the shimmying thing the orchestra
leader feels like quitting his post and shouting "Atta girl, Mae."
— New York Dramatic Mirror, September 2^, 1919
y the time Mae West resurfaced in New York in the spring of
B 1918, the world had changed drastically. The United States had
entered World War I, and several of her friends and relatives had
gone off to fight. West pitched in, displaying her patriotic efforts
in a series of publicity photos. Shots showed her, outfitted in straw hat, over-
alls, and high heels, planting a victory garden or perched on a ladder with a
caption reading: "While the men go to the trenches, Mary [sic] West paints
the old barn." She also helped entertain the troops and, after the war's end,
was among those honored by the U.S. military for giving benefit perfor-
mances for the fighting men.1
West's homecoming also marked another significant change in her life.
Her mother was anxious for her to meet a thirty-three-year-old attorney,
James A. Timony, whom Tillie had retained for some legal business. Mae
never specified what affairs Timony had handled, but in January 1917 he es-
corted Beverly, now working as a cabaret singer, to Brooklyn's City Hall to
be married to Serge Treshatny, a munitions expert and Russian immigrant.
Timony even signed her marriage certificate—in the spot typically reserved
for the maid of honor.
No matter what services he had performed for the Wests, Timony was an
important contact. The Brooklyn-born son of an Irish immigrant who was a
successful contractor and developer, Jim Timony had practiced law since
505
SHIMADONNA 51
1905. He specialized in entertainment and real estate law, offering his ser-
vices as an investment counselor in show business trade journals. He was
closely tied to entertainment leaders and served as counsel to the Show-
men's League of America, the Actors' Guild, and the White Rats. Many be-
lieved that he had strong ties to New York racketeers and the Democratic
political machine, Tammany Hall. Mae claimed that he was well-off and that
he owned a plane and a baseball team. It is clear why Tillie wanted her tal-
ented daughter to meet such a prosperous and well-connected lawyer.
Mae claimed that she shared an immediate chemistry with Timony. Like
her, he was a risk taker—uncompromising, flamboyant, and extremely de-
termined. A former football player, he had an overwhelming physical pres-
ence; he was large, favored flashy dress, and always sported a diamond ring
on his pinky finger. "His suit was a loud black-and-gray checkered pattern,"
one journalist reported. "He wore a wing collar and a puffed Ascot tie, in
which a diamond horseshoe tie-pin flashily reposed; his hat was a derby, and
his cane had an elk's tooth imbedded in the handle." He smoked oversize cig-
ars, wheezing while puffing away vigorously. He walked with a limp that
some ascribed to a football injury but others whispered was from an old
gunshot wound.2
Timony was smitten with Mae. He called her daily and squired her
around Manhattan,where he maintained his office. In many ways, he was
similar to her previous paramours—domineering, growing jealous easily,
fighting both Mae and other men to keep her to himself—but one quality
set him apart. His devotion extended beyond romance; he was also willing
to dedicate himself completely to championing her career.
Timony's adoration, connections, and expertise were immensely benefi-
cial. Mae trusted him, and he became one of the few people outside her im-
mediate family that she took into her confidence. Her faith in him was so
thorough that she shared with him her most closely guarded secret—she had
married Frank Wallace. She had not seen her husband, still a struggling
vaudevillian, for years. Then one day, as she sat with Timony in his elegant car
on Broadway, Wallace strolled past. Timony confronted him. "He said I ought
to realize myJ marriage
o
to Mae West was a fizzle and that she could not afford
to be married because there was a future waiting for her in show business,"
Wallace recalled. When Beverly, who now also knew Mae's secret, arrived at
Wallace's hotel room to deliver divorce papers, she found him in a state of
shock. "I had a nervous breakdown," Wallace later claimed. However, his re-
action may have resulted more from panic than heartbreak, for in 1916 he had
married another woman. When Timony later called claiming the divorce had
been finalized, Wallace destroyed the papers without signing them.3
52 * M A E * WEST
What Wallace did not know was that Timony had never initiated any offi-
cial divorce proceedings. Mae might have convinced him to stop, fearing that
her mother might somehow learn of her marriage. But Timony had also
hoped to marry Mae; perhaps he realized that she was going to refuse him and
made sure she could never become any other man's wife. Mae West and Jim
Timony shared a complicated relationship. While Mae maintained close emo-
tional ties to Timony, she refused to be faithful to him. His desire to possess
and control her onlyJ drove her to rebel against
o him even further. But she al-
ways acquiesced to him in some form, for he provided her with unconditional
loyalty and friendship as well as critical professional support and guidance.
With Timony's help West restarted her New York career. In the spring of
1918, she obtained a plum role in Arthur Hammerstein's Sometime. The play
chronicled the adventures and heartaches of a touring theatrical troupe. The
cast also included popular comedian Ed Wynn, who starred as a hapless
property man. West played the "flip chorus girl" Maymie Dean, "in search of
temptation but never finding it." She had the privilege of opening the pro-
duction with a musical lament, "What Do You Have to Do?" In addition, she
was featured in "All I Want Is Just a Little Lovin' " and "Any Kind of Man,"
which she delivered with a shimmy.
Sometime opened on October 4 with West receiving excellent notices. The
New York Clipper rated her performance "capital," and Variety's Sime, although
complaining that her shimmy was inappropriate for Broadway, agreed that she
"bowled them over." Leonard Hall, a young soldier just returning from war,
later recalled her as a "slender, beautiful ball of fire who performed as a spe-
cialty dancer in high kicks, cartwheels, and fast taps. She was a tasty tornado."
West was the show's hit. While Sime attributed some of her enthusiastic re-
ception to a "well placed claque," he praised West's "rough hand on the hip"
characterization as perfect for the vampish Maymie Dean.4
West took most of the credit for Maymie Dean's success and popularity,
again alleging that she asserted control over the direction of her character
O O O
and enhanced her role significantly. She claimed that she spiced up "All I
Want Is Just a Little Lovin' " with new lyrics, and rather than working with
the show's choreographer, she sought help from Joe Frisco, a Chicago friend
and popular white jazz dancer who had carefully studied black technique.
Maymie Dean was originally conceived of as somewhat pathetic, but West
portrayed her as proud and determined; critics lauded Maymie as "tough"
and a "wise dame."5
Of all her contributions to Sometime, the most important, as well as suc-
cessful, was West's shimmy dance. It was a crowning achievement, for while
the shimmy had made the rounds in vaudeville, until this point it had been
SHIMADONNA 53
considered too raunchy for the Great White Way. Introducing the shimmy
to Broadway, Mae stopped the show, then made a speech and, as Sime testi-
fied, "then made another." It propelled a shimmy craze that swept Manhattan,
driving the city's moral guardians to ban it from nightclubs, dance halls, and
restaurants.
West was immediately linked with the shimmy and appeared on the
sheet-music cover of the popular hit song "Everyone Shimmies Now." Shortly
after she debuted her shimmy on Broadway, several shimmy imitators, most
notably Gilda Gray and Bee Palmer, followed in her footsteps. Later West
adamantly asserted her claim to the title of Broadway's shimmy pioneer but
carefully credited African Americans as its creators. West specifically re-
sented Gilda Gray for declaring that she had originated the shimmy. "She
started telling the story that it was a native dance," West later ranted to a re-
porter, "and she's Polish!"6
In Sometime West sharpened her performance style. She discovered fresh
inspiration in Ed Wynn, who was at the peak of his stage career. Wynn had
moved comedy away from slapstick toward conversational humor. His tim-
ing was impeccable, and he was a master scene-stealer. West deeply admired
Wynn, but she quickly grew weary of being overshadowed by him and of
serving, as she described it, as "something which could be draped in the
background to make the stage look a little less empty." She recalled, "All I
had to do, I discovered, was to wander around that stage like so much bait
while the boys kept the audience happy with laughs." Soon she devised a plan
to upstage Wynn. Realizing that his power rested in his timing and rhythm,
she decided to turn the tables on him. One matinee, during a scene where
' O
she normally traversed the stage behind him, she altered her gait, adopting
what later became her famous walk. Her slow and studied strut clashed di-
rectly with the pace of Wynn's rapid wisecracking. As she swaggered across
the stage, "the audience forgot the comedians. They forgot the patter. . . .
They just looked."7
With her unique walk, West had successfully stolen the moment—as well
as the power—from the male star Wynn. It was a brazen move and, not sur-
prisingly, originated from the African-American presence in her performance;
the shimmy opened the door for her subversive trick. The infamous Westian
gait, radiating from the shoulders downward, was a slow, strolling shimmy. A
few years later, a reviewer immediately made the connection, declaring that
West's "peculiar slouching about the stage" proved that "she originated the
shimmy dance." West's actions were becoming more purposeful. "Even though
I must have always talked like I do, and used my eyes like I do and . . . sort of
naturally walked like I do today," she remarked in the 19303, "I wasn't really
54 * M A E * W E S T *
conscious of it then. But I was always a good one for trying to analyze things."
West was increasingly aware of how timing empowered her performance in
the male-dominated stage world. She credited Wynn and Sometime as major in-
fluences, explaining, "Everything I do and say is based on rhythm."8
Sometime earned a chilly reception from New York critics, but after a
rough start and a move to a smaller theater, it became one of the 1918—1919
season's biggest hits. Twenty-five-year-old Mae West was so popular that
Hammerstein had to fight off a rival producer's attempt to lure her away. She
was such a shimmying sensation that in February 1919 Theatre Magazine fea-
tured her in "Players of Talent and Personality," raving that "her clever danc-
ing is one of the bright spots of the piece."9
After a triumphant season, Sometime closed in June 1919 and prepared for
a road tour—but without West. She had returned to vaudeville, billing her-
' O
self as "Shimadonna" and "the Girl Who Made the Shimmy a Classic" in a
new act that included a piano accompanist and a jazz trumpeter. When she
debuted it at the end of September 1919, Variety's Bell pronounced her "an
unqualified
l
hit." NotingO her extended hiatus from New York's vaudeville
stages, he praised her "marked improvement in method and delivery." Ironi-
cally, her new routine differed little from earlier acts. She opened with a
"vamp medley" that included a French dialect tune ("The Yankee Boys Have
Made a Wild Woman Out of Me"), a "comedy Indian song," and a ragtime
number. But for her finish, she sang and shimmied to "All I Want Is Just a
Little Lovin',"
7 slightly lifting her black evening gown for a daring peek at her
o ./ o o o O-T
black silk stockings.10
Although West had played a central role in introducing the shimmy to
Broadway, she had difficulty cashing in on it in vaudeville. Variety assessed her
version as "a bit broad for vaudeville." In contrast, the same week that West
debuted her latest routine, rival Bee Palmer premiered a new act complete
with an entire jazz band and a shimmy encore. The WASPish Palmer won
overwhelming praise; one reviewer rhapsodized that her "golden hair shoul-
der shaking" would "find a big welcome in vaudeville." Indeed, Palmer
quickly scored a contract with Keith and a date at New York City's Palace,
the nation's most prestigious vaudeville house. Despite her solid reviews,
Mae West again
o
found herself searchingo for another break.
Why did Bee Palmer succeed where Mae West failed? Most likely it was
because Palmer's shimmy was simply less threatening to white audiences.
Blond-haired and blue-eyed, Palmer possessed the classic looks of the ideal-
ized white woman. Although Palmer, with her jazz band, also linked her per-
formance to black culture, she performed the shimmy as an exhibition of
white female sensuality. West's shimmy was much more dangerous. Further-
SHIMADONNA 55
more, distinct from Palmer, West was a comedian, and her shimmy con-
tained multiple meanings. It thrilled, just like a good old-fashioned bump
and grind, but also mocked that thrill. Appropriately, when Mae debuted her
shimmy in Sometime, Variety announced that it was "the rawest 'shimmy' that
New York has thus far seen in public." But shortly afterward, it also declared
that shimmying Mae was just "too funny." It was hard to pin West down—
was she serious or joking? In reality, she was both. Unlike Palmer, West at-
tempted an authentic signifying shimmy. It was simply too real and too
unreal, too serious and too humorous, for many whites.11
Although big-time vaudeville passed West up, that October she was
booked at $^00 a week for Ned Wayburn's ambitious new project, The Demi
Tasse Revue. Scheduled to open the new Capitol Theater, the largest movie
palace in the world, Demi Tasse mixed first-run films with skits and musical
routines. For the inaugural show, West reprised her vaudeville act, used
some of Wayburn's material, and delivered "Oh What a Moanin' Man" for
her shimmy finale. It proved disappointing. While Variety hailed her, other
reviewers were not kind. She abruptly exited the show, claiming a case of
tonsilitis. Rumors circulated that a dissatisfied Wayburn had released her.
Shortly afterward, West signed an exclusive contract with the Shuberts
and played a Sunday night concert at their Winter Garden Theater. With
that she came under the control of one of show business's most successful
production organizations. It seemed to pay off. In December, she appeared
on the New York Dramatic Mirror's cover, an honor accorded to major stars and
up-and-coming talent. Identified as a "popular Broadway Comedienne,"
Mae's portrait was fitting, a head shot revealing little but a sultry stare peer-
ing out beneath a mass of dark curls.12
O
Despite West's association with the Shuberts, her rise to stardom came to
a halt. She lay low until August 1920, when she reemerged with still another
act. Scripted by Thomas Gray, it again featured ragtime music, dances, jokes,
and a skit: "The Mannikin," in which she played three different characters. Of
course, she wrapped it all up with a shimmy.
The Clipper denounced West's shake dance, commenting, "The men liked
it and it stopped the show, but there were women and children present who
did not." But Variety raved: "Thanks to Tommy Gray and her own comedic
ability, Miss West looks set as a big-time feature." (This enthusiasm probably
derived from Gray's ties to the publication; he contributed a popular weekly
column.) Despite Variety's endorsement, she failed to break into big-time
vaudeville. In fact, illness prevented her from finishing her dates in New
York City. She surfaced in upstate New York that October but soon vanished
AGAIN FROM VAUE
56 * M A E * WEST
Although Mae's career had taken a dip, the West family's fortunes had im-
proved. Mae's income was intermittent but still respectable for the era. Ti-
mony, no doubt, helped Tillie invest her daughter's earnings wisely. By
1920, the Wests had purchased a family home in Woodhaven, Long Island, a
middle-class neighborhood conveniently close to the Aqueduct racetrack.
Beverly had returned home, separated from her husband after accusing him
in a New York tabloid of treating her like "a bird in a gilded cage." Nineteen-
O O O
year-old John Junior worked as a clerk for a local newspaper. Jack had be-
come a masseuse and later, after taking a correspondence course, began
practicing chiropractics. Tillie had earned her American citizenship and re-
mained devoted to cheering Mae on.14
O
After a slow year, Mae's situation began to brighten. In February 1921,

she secured a role in a Shubert musical revue, The Whirl of the Town, staged by
the popular vaudeville comic Jimmy Hussey. That winter, it set out on an ex-
tended tour as Hussey reworked it, adding and subtracting routines. By the
time it arrived in Washington, D.C., in March, the revue consisted of two
O 7 7
*
acts and twenty-five scenes. Hussey featured West in several skits. As Shifty
Liz, she conned a society matron. She also played an unfaithful wife and Jew-
ish and French dialect characters. But the hit of the road show was "The Trial
of Shimmy Mae," in which she stood trial in Hussy's chaotic courtroom for
doing the shimmy. As evidence, West shimmied, which, according to one
critic, "caused a riot—men actually stood up and yelled. . . . Mae West sim-
ply shook that house from its seats as well as shaking herself from her neck to
her toes and then back again." When the show played Boston, a city known
for rigid censorship, with West's first ripple the crew cut the lights, plung-
ing the stage into darkness.15
O O
After months of tryouts, Hussey's revue, retitled The Mimic World oj 1921,
finally debuted on Broadway on August i £, 1921. But just hours before the
premiere, when Hussey learned the Shuberts had cut the production, limit-
ing him to two scenes, he walked out in a rage. The Shuberts rearranged
O ' O O
skits, deleted those dependent on Hussey, including "The Trial of Shimmy

Mae," and recruited new acts. They even called boxer Jack Dempsey out of
the audience to play Hussey's part in a popular prizefighting skit.
Despite the shake-up, West remained prominently featured. The Shu-
berts retained Shifty Liz, but she now turned her tricks on a Salvation Army
officer. West also reprised her impression of a French coquette, played
Cleopatra in "Shakespeare's Garden of Love," and, as "Jazzimova," parodied
the queen of all movie vamps, Nazimova. "Yes, Miss West certainly wiggled,"
proclaimed
1
Billboard. "And Wiggled.
OO
AND WIGGLED." While most critics
panned The Mimic World, one sniffing that "the comedy is nothing to laugh at,"
SHIMADONNA 57
West definitely got noticed. Variety acknowledged the crowd's enthusiastic

reception and rated her performance "snappy," although it still asserted that
she was more suited to burlesque, insisting that "in a tent [her shimmy]
would have been a riot."
The dance had become a Broadway staple, but West's version continued
to threaten even New York critics, who were growing more blase with the
increase of risque material directed at jazz-age audiences. Mae was danger-
ous; by playing between the extremes of whiteness and blackness, she made
her performance subversive and disquieting. Theatre Magazine's 1921 photo
tribute to The Mimic World's shimmying star unintentionally celebrated her
revolutionary dualities. West's whiteness was highlighted—locks lightened
to blond, her head tipped to create the impression of an upturned WASPish
nose, and a dark drape clutched to her bare chest accentuating her white
skin. At the same time, the magazine proclaimed her "the leading woman of
many musical comedies whom those who do not know African tribal cus-
toms credit—or damn—with the invention of the shimmy."16
Despite West's celebrated shimmy, poor attendance forced The Mimic
World of 1921 to close after a month. But she had used the year productively.
In addition to her appearance in Hussey's revue, she had worked on writing
her first piece, a short playlet, The Ruby Ring. She relied on Jim Timony's
secretaries to transcribe ideas and dialogue she had jotted down. It was brief
and simple but offered important insights into the evolution of Mae West
the author and Mae West the character.
The Ruby Ring took place at a grand ball where the enchanting Gloria
(West's role) instructs two female friends on the art of flirtation. Gloria bets
her bracelet against a ruby ring that she can get five men to propose to her,
each in less than five minutes. By assuming a different personality tailored to
the unique qualities of each man, Gloria successfully seduces a college boy,
businessman, rich elderly gentleman, cowboy, and psychology professor. All
return at the same moment to whisk her to the altar but discover that Gloria
has duped them. Not only has she accepted proposals from all of them, but
she is already married. She collects on her bet and, as the skit closes, re-
marks to her unwitting husband, "Look dear—how do you like my new
ruby ring?"17
The plot of The Ruby Ring was certainly not unique. Constantly in the
process of appropriation and revision, West synthesized it from a variety of
sources including Gray's "Mannikin" skit. Regardless, The Ruby Ring allowed
West to channel her tricksterism by adopting the role of a shapeshifter. For
Gloria's collegiate beau, she became a well-read society maiden. To the
powerful businessman, she appeared as a devotee of "pep" and "ambition."
58 * M A E * W E S T
She insisted on her fondness for gingham to the cowboy, and her youthful in-
nocence bewitched the wealthy older man. In the end, she transformed into
a deadly temptress to ensnare the bookish psychology professor.
Although she relied on traditional gender roles, West used The Ruby Ring
to upend conventional expectations regarding men and women. By wearing
masks of fantasized womanhood but remaining o
self-determined underneath,'
Gloria dominated men and robbed them of their authority. She did not pur-
sue romance, or even sex, but rather material fulfillment. Her prize, the ruby
ring, evidenced West's belief that male lust could and should be exploited for
profit; jewelry symbolized success. A rejection of love and even sex, The Ruby
Ring was a product of Mae's abusive past, broken love affairs, and relation-
ships
L
with controllingO men;' it also reflected her mother's working-class
O
world,' where male-female relations were based on material exchange.o

The Ruby Ring also reveals West's growing interest in wordplay. Gloria's
masquerades all rest on conversation; she makes no costume changes.
Throughout the dialogue she retains complete control, setting the pace and
rhythm, asking the questions, and supplying the answers. "Do I look so
wicked—so immoral?" she asks the psychologist. "My dear young lady," he
replies, "morality is merely a question of distance from the Equator." Gloria
slyly responds, "Whose equator?" The exchanges between Gloria and her
suitors contain humor but are also serious challengesto to male privilege.
r o Ro-
mancing her cowboy, she exclaims, "There's the blue of the skies in your
eyes—the thunder of the mountain is in your voice. . . . I can see you—so
noble in your shape, with a lariat around your neck." Significantly, the psy-
chology professor, a student of Schopenhauer, understands her the best, de-
claringO Gloria "a paradox."
1
DuringOhis verbal battle with her,' he observes,'
"You merely play with words." His assessment indicates that West had not
only absorbed signification's language games but also knew exactly what she
was doingo with them.18
The Ruby Ring was never produced, but West used a portion of it in a new
act that she assembled in the spring of 192 2. It was elaborate and ambitious,
almost twenty minutes long, and required a male piano accompanist. Mae
commenced a talent search; Jim Timony carefully screened male perform-
ers for auditions. He favored a homely but talented jazz pianist named
Jimmy Durante. Mae much preferred another candidate, the tall, sophisti-
cated, and handsome Harry Richman. She won out. But Timony sternly
warned Richman, "If you ever have a romance in any way with Mae West,
you're finished."
Richman later contended that he carefully heeded Timony's admonition.
However, Milton Berle, then a young Broadway initiate, recalled that Rich-
SHIMADONNA 598
man bragged
OO
of a torrid affair with Mae West. ByJ then,' Berle claimed,' West's
libertine reputation was widespread in entertainment circles. Although Rich-
man was equally renowned for his sexual escapades, he met his match with
Mae. For her, sex revolved around control, personal advancement, and some-
times revenge.
o
Richman told Berle of an afternoon sexual rendezvous when
West insisted the radio be tuned to a baseball game so she could stay awake.
Despite Richman's legendary lovemaking, West remained more interested in
the power than in the passion that could be derived from sex.19
While their intimate relationship may have lacked spark, onstage the pair-
ing of Mae West with Harry Richman was electric. Their act, billed as "Bits
of Musical Comedy—Mae West assisted by Harry Richman," was flashy and
sophisticated, much of it written by Mae and moving quickly through the
songs and skits. It opened with the abbreviated version of The Ruby Ring, al-
lowing West to show off her versatility in a series of characterizations. After
that, she returned to older material. Reminiscent of Deslys, she played an ar-
rogant French prima donna who unleashes outrageous temper tantrums on
her beleaguered manager, played by Richman. She then appeared as a sugges-
tively clad Roman empress in search of a new gladiator to wear an equally
skimpy uniform. For her finish, she often used the folk tune "Frankie and
Johnny," which she sang in blues style. Occasionally, when the house permit-
ted it, she offered an accompanying shimmy.
The act premiered, without the shimmy, in Manhattan in June 1922 to an
enthusiastic reception from critics and vaudeville fans. One reviewer gushed
that West "made the half a houseful of patrons forget the heat Monday night."
Richman recalled that at the end of the gladiator skit, men jumped to their
feet, cheering and applauding. Variety hailed Richman as "an ideal opposite"
and heralded Mae's comingtoof age on to the stage:
o "She rises to heights o Un-
dreamed of for her and reveals unsuspected depths as a delineator of charac-
ter songs, a dramatic reader of ability and a girl with a flair for farce that will
some day land her on the legitimate Olympus." The turn won the duo a date
at the coveted Palace, and Variety extolled her again: "How the show-makers
have let that blond baby get away from them so long—in fact, why anyone
has let her squander seasons as a shimmy dancer is inexplicable." The New
York Clipper found the act uneven but praised it as Mae's best effort to date.20
West claimed that Keith offered her a lucrative road tour but, to Rich-
man's dismay, she declined. Timony's possessiveness may have influenced
her decision; he battled unrelentingly to keep her under his close watch. She
later insisted that she had simply grown weary of travel and was holding out
for a starring role on Broadway. In the meantime, she accepted engagements
in the Northeast, but only at $700 a week. (Richman got a $2oo cut.) Any-
60 M A E * W E S T
thing less, which it almost always was, and she refused to work. Richman
claimed that West fell on desperate times, that she had to borrow money
from him to pay her overdue utility bills. But others remembered it differ-
ently: that while partnered with her, Richman subsisted on only coffee and
doughnuts. For her part, Mae was well provided for. Jim Timony's practice
was thriving, and her parents maintained their respectable Long Island home.
In the meantime, West pursued her Broadway dreams. While legitimate
theater impresarios passed her by, she did attract interest from a Paul
Dupont. An unknown producer with lots of drive and big ideas, Dupont
boasted that he could "out-Ziegfeld Ziegfeld." He laid out a proposal for West
to headline a two-act variety show that he insisted would definitely land her
as a star on the Great White Way. It could be done on a shoestring, he
promised, and if she kicked in some money, she would reap healthy returns.
Working with an unknown like Dupont was a gamble, but it also permitted
West to assert more creative control than she could have normally done. Dub-
bing the show The Ginger Box Revue, West and Dupont recruited Harry Rich-
man as well as fourteen other acts and a chorus line of twelve Greenwich
Village models, all of whom purportedly had "posed for well-known artists
and sculptors." They also booked the Clef Club, New York's premiere African-
American musicians, to play between the acts and feature "Pick 'Em Up and
Lay 'Em Down," reportedly "the fastest jazz song on record." Although the
Clef Club was relegated to a specialty position within the revue, dieir appear-
ance was notable. They not only extended West's connection with African-
American performance but also presented a mild defiance of the color line, for
many white entertainers still refused to appear in mixed-race revues even if
they did not share the stage with African-American performers.
Mae West's stamp was visible throughout The Ginger Box. In addition to a
duet with Richman called "The Vamp of Broadway," she parodied Eugene
O'Neill's treatment of working-class life, playing The Hairy Ape's Yank
Smith. She also planned to appear as Circe, the Greek goddess who trans-
formed male paramours into pigs. For her finale, West scheduled three
songs, "I Want a Cave Man,""I'm a Night School Teacher," and "Sorry I Made
You Cry."
Rehearsals began in early July, and the production was immediately be-
sieged with setbacks. First and foremost, The Ginger Box quickly incurred
heavy debts. Harry Richman remembered making the rounds with Timony
on Broadway attempting to raise money and "talk[ing] actors into working
on 'spec.' " At the end of the month, The Ginger Box journeyed to Stamford,
Connecticut, for a tryout. Just hours before opening, the cast learned that
Dupont had failed to secure most of the wardrobe and scenery. West insisted
SHIMADONNA 6l
that the show go on and played two nights to sellout crowds. Variety gave
them a thumbs-down review.21
Dupont returned the cast to New York City, announcing that the sched-
uled premiere at the Greenwich Village Theater would be delayed for one
week. He then disappeared. Outraged, the theater's manager canceled the
show and threatened to sue him. Angry cast members filed complaints in
city courts and with Actors' Equity. When reporters tracked West down,
she "expressed a warm desire to have a settlement with him" but described
Dupont as "likeable. . . . He seemed to have a lot of trouble. I think he was all
right, but just couldn't get the money he needed."
A week later, Dupont resurfaced, claiming that he had taken some needed
rest by yachting off Long Island. Newspapers revealed that Dupont, also
known by several other aliases, was really Edward Perkins, a producer with a
long, disastrous track record. He had stranded casts outside of New York City
with no way home, had welched on salaries, and was even once shut down by
the police. Only one Ginger Box cast member had received any compensation,
a chorus girl who immediately returned her money to Dupont for opening
night tickets and his promise he would make her a star. Clearly Dupont was a
con man. Timony attempted to shop the failed Ginger Box around but found
no takers. Dupont had left the production $ 10,000 in the red.22
West immediately announced her return to vaudeville with Harry Rich-
man and subsequently secured a lucrative four-week contract on the Keith
Circuit. But before opening, Richman defected, accepting a part in a Broad-
way musical, a step up from his second-string position as West's accompa-
nist. For Mae, it was catastrophic. Keith immediately withdrew its offer,
leavingo her,' once again,
o '
out of work.23
Shortly afterward, West revealed in Variety that she planned to write
and star in her own play. For the remainder of the year, she poured her en-
ergy into that ambitious project. Teaming up with experienced playwright
Adeline Leitzbach, she composed The Hussy, a full-length, three-act play.
Mae contended that she began o
writingo her own material at her mother's
insistence. As before, her father discouraged her attempts. "Let the pro-
ducers find the play and do it," he advised. "Then if it doesn't turn out too
good, it will be their fault." Mae forged ahead anyway, and while she never
found a producer for The Hussy, the play was a milestone in her evolution.
It allowed Mae to further craft her fictional presence through a new
means—autobiographical confession. "My ideas and my texts," she later
confessed, "were from the first for the stage, through the secret doors of
my personal life." Mae's identity became increasingly engulfed by the fic-
tional sphere she created, but it was her inner self that provided the genesis
62 M A E * WEST
of her imaginary world. Mae West's work and life were becoming com-
pletely intertwined.24
The Hussy centers on the notorious vixen Nona Ramsey, who lives with
her financially struggling parents in a recently gentrified Long Island neigh-
borhood. The community's residents are aghast: Every day Nona steps out
with a different man. She supplies her family with extravagant gifts and
money, fueling neighbors' speculation that she is a prostitute. Even her fa-
ther, Tom, an ill-tempered private eye who gambles away his meager earn-
ings at the racetrack, believes it. Tom and Nona repeatedly clash, with Jen
Ramsey, Nona's mother, frequently mediating. Although Nona insists that
she only acts as companion and gives betting advice, her father threatens to
"break her neck" for bringing shame upon the family. Nona herself sees noth-
ingO wrongO in accepting
l O
the O
gifts that her male admirers 1provide and assures
her family that she will marry—someday.
Later, Nona attends a high society ball. Reprising The Ruby Ring, she offers
vamp lessons to a group of young women, wagering that she can entice any
man into marrying her by assuming a compatible persona. She succeeds with
a rugged outdoorsman and an economics professor, but she stops short with
the next man, the wealthy Robert Van Sturdivant. She calls off the bet and
announces that she has found her true match, intending to secure a legiti-
mate proposal from him.
Fearful that Van Sturdivant will reject her when he learns of her true
background, Nona rents a mansion and convinces her family to pretend that
they are its usual tenants. But her conscience overcomes her, forcing her to
admit to him that she has lied and has no money or social standing. Van Stur-
J O
divant reveals that he already knows she is not a blue blood and whisks her
off to be married anyway.
Even though The Hussy appears contrived and amateurish, this early piece
indicates that Mae West had begun to think about and structure her perfor-
mance in very specific ways. Several important elements had converged to
form a base for her future work. First, she not only developed a prototype
for her stage persona but was also continuing her experimentation with the
power of language. The Ramseys' neighbors engage in considerable discus-
sion of Nona before she actually appears. "The hussy! Every day a different
man," cries one; another coos, "Look at the gown!" Through dialogue West
controlled her audience, telling spectators what to look for and how to read
her image. In Nona's case, she becomes irresistibly beautiful, scorned by
proper women but adored by men, who are, according to one high society
maven, "twisted around her little finger."25
Next, West pits her character in a contest against men. Again, she demon-
strates die mutability of identity, the transformative power of her tricksterism,
SHIMADONNA 63
which allows Nona to conquer male privilege through guile and wit. Out of
this battle, West's character always emerged the victor. Mae West would al-
ways
J
get her man.
O
Nona succeeds because she understands how to manipulate men to get

what she wants and needs. For her, men are not a source of sensual pleasure;
they serve utilitarian purposes. She shares her distinct philosophy with her
admiring peers during her vamp lessons. She cautions them to mask their fe-
male superiority. "Men never like to feel that you think you are superior to
them," she insists. "Oh, they want you to be and if they don't think you
are—it's a lost cause where you're concerned, but they don't want you to
know you are!" She contends that all male-female relationships center on
capital; men will generously offer gifts and cash in exchange for female at-
tention. These material awards depend on a woman's appreciation of the
male ego.
o
A successful woman knows how to control men byJ moldingo her-
self to their individual traits and expectations. But, Nona warns her pupils,
their male "victims" should never be too certain of the relationship: "Never
let a man see you care for him—keep him guessing. Don't be too nice to
him; never let him be sure of you."26
Nona's principles were a mixed bag of conservative and rebellious princi-
ples. While the Westian character only found satisfaction in relationships
with men, at the same time, she contested their power and authority. Within
this confusing array of attitudes, West challenged women's subordination by
inverting traditional roles. She constructed male characters as weak; many
are easily fooled and even a little dim-witted. Additionally, the Ramsey
home was hardly a testimony to the "Cult of Domesticity." The Ramseys'
gender roles are out of kilter: The daughter supports the family, and the fa-
ther is completely dependent on her income; Nona constantly berates her
father for failing to fulfill his traditional obligations to support his family.
The Hussy's autobiographical undercurrent indicates that it functioned as a
cathartic for Mae's frustrations with her personal life. Thomas Ramsey
clearly represented Jack West. Like Tillie, Jen, a seamstress who is com-
pletely devoted to her daughter, constantly intercedes on Nona's behalf. The
Hussy may offer one of the most honest glimpses into the West family life—
the constant battles between Mae and her father, his explosive temper, and
her resentment of him. Nona observes that her father has "never liked any-
thing in his life" and that despite his unhappiness he has done nothing to im-
prove himself. She lectures her younger brother, Tom Junior, predicting that
"[you would] make a bum out of yourself—that's what you'd do! Marry
some decent little woman and make her life like the old man's wrecked
Mom's—and you'd put children into the world like you and me—And they
might take after you—same's we take after Dad."27
O J
64 M A E * W E S T
The Hussy was as much a story of Nona's (or Mae's) triumph over her fa-
ther as of her victory over male suitors. It paralleled Mae's perception of her
life, her understanding of relations with men, and her stubborn refusal to al-
low her father to discourage her aspirations. Mae had begun to use her work
to explore and renegotiate the realities of her existence and oppression.
Nona Ramsey reigned supreme over the men who attempted to dominate
her. Additionally, she was a working-class woman who slipped easily into
wealth by attracting the right man.
J O O
West could not find backers for The Hussy, so, deciding to return to
vaudeville, she began a search for Richman's replacement. She finally hired
two men, singer Joseph Lertora and pianist Leon Flatow. Billed as "Mae
West and Company," in January 1923 they debuted an act similar to the one
that Mae had played with Richman; she did add several new musical num-
bers, bringing the act to almost thirty minutes. Reviewers panned this ver-
sion, complaining that it was under rehearsed and too long. Sime lamented
the absence of Richman, noting that without him West "had lost the little
7
O
touch of finesse." The West and Richman pairing had produced a more
palatable Mae, his sophistication softening her rawness. Mae had used Rich-
man as her balance, a second voice to signify her double meanings and mixed
messages.28
O
Reviewer reactions convinced West that she needed to get Richman back.
By April, she had successfully convinced him to rejoin her, and together they
appeared at Manhattan's Colonial Theater to a sold-out crowd. West had up-
dated her wardrobe to include new, stunning gowns; one, in black velvet, was
accented by a large, plumed, Gaby Deslys—style silver headdress. The act also
included an African-American actress who played the French prima donna's
maid, hauling around an overgrown German shepherd in place of the antici-
pated miniature poodle. For her encore, West shimmied. The house went
wild,5 demanding o several bows. Later that night,
o ' she took the stage
o again,
o ' Jioin-
ing a jazz band to sing as African-American tap master Bill Robinson danced.
This time Variety rated her "the hit of the bill."29
Despite their success, this engagement was the death blow to the West-
Richman partnership. Richman alleged that Tiniony, growing more jealous,
broke up the act, but according to Richman's close friend Nils Granlund, it
was Mae who decided to end their collaboration. Apparently, several of
Harry's buddies attended their performance later in the week. At the act's
end, after Mae took her bows, they called for Richman to do an encore. Rich-
man happily obliged. West fired him immediately.30
Richman quickly rose as a theatrical star and opened his own nightclub.
West again faded away. Fate, pride, misfortune, and bad decisions had inter-
SHIMADONNA 65
rupted her rise and, combined with her stubborn insistence on controlling
her performance, forced her yet another time into the entertainment
world's outback. She was thirty years old and had been in show business for
over twenty years. Several times she had stardom in her grasp only to see it
slip away.
Yet Mae trouped on. Between 1923 and 192^, she intermittently played
small-time vaudeville throughout the country. In the act, she plugged and ap-
peared on the covers of several new songs, including "Hula Lou," and "I Never
Broke Nobody's Heart When I Said Goodbye." Not surprisingly, during this
period she plowed through several more accompanists. While she was often
able to secure good spots on the bill, she could no longer command top-
dollar salaries. She played Philadelphia several times at only $ i 2£ a week.31
In March 1924, she accepted a four-week contract to appear on the Inter-
state Vaudeville Circuit. One of vaudeville's least desirable routes, it covered
Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. She opened in Dallas and by the
next week, in Houston, attracted the affections of R. A. "Bud" Burmeister, a
publicity agent for a local theater. He applied for a marriage license, but be-
fore he could get her to the altar, she had left town for San Antonio. She
wrapped up the tour with a week in Fort Worth.
The Interstate Circuit promoted West as "fresh from Broadway" and ran
advertisements exhorting, "Hot Mamma! The queen of the jazz babies is
here! Beautiful back—shaking shoulders, delicious spice and all!!" One
critic praised her performance and her "strikingly beautiful figure," noting
she was well received. But it was hardly the dazzling impression she had
hoped to make. By the time she arrived in Fort Worth, management had
dropped her to fourth on the bill, the same spot she had occupied in 1912.
Several months later, she resurfaced on the Keith Circuit, playing theaters in
Columbus and Detroit. Again Broadway's former shimmy queen found her-
self relegated to the fourth spot, just after "Marcel and his Trained Seal."32
Mae spent downtime in Woodhaven with her family. Neighbors remem-
bered her fondness for two neighborhood toddlers, Jack Meuchner and Gi-
rard Thompson. She showered them with attention and gifts—boxing
gloves and cowboy suits. "She wanted what they called boy children," Jack
Meuchner's aunt recalled. "Girls never did appeal to her." Regardless, Mae
was more a playmate than a nurturer. Late in life, she always insisted that she
was unsuitable for motherhood. "I'm my own child. . . . I had to create my-
self," she explained. "I knew instinctively that I shouldn't have children. I had
to have the attention all the time." And while she idolized her mother, Mae
could never be selflessly devoted like Tillie. Neighbors described the intense
bond between the two. Mae proudly recalled a New Year's Eve performance
66 M A E * WEST
when she brought her mother onstage to take a bow. "She loved it," Mae re-
O O '
lated. "She lit up. I threw the audience a kiss and she did too."33
Tillie remained the backbone of the West family. Even though Mae's earn-
ings had declined, between 1923 and 19 2 ^ the Wests' finances appeared to be
on the upswing. In fact, in 1923, under the alias of Tillie Landauer, Mae's
mother took over the operation of the Harding Hotel, leasing it from a real
estate company. (Later, Mae boasted that her mother owned it.) On Broadway,
near Times Square, the Harding had twelve floors and totaled $700,000 in an-
nual rentals. It was a popular hangout for boxers, show people, and some of
New York's most notorious ogangsters,
o '
includingo Feets Edison,' Legs
o
Diamond,'
Arnold Rothstein, and Dutch Schultz. Additionally, by the mid-twenties,
Tillie undertook the management of three Long Island roadhouses: the Royal
Arms, the Blue Goose, and the Green Parrot. Like the Harding, these had
' ' O'
questionable reputations. Roadhouses were considered wild places where pa-
trons enjoyed bootleg alcohol to the sound of jazz and blues.34
Running a midtown Manhattan hotel and three roadhouses definitely re-
quired a large financial outlay. The family must have benefited from Jim Ti-
mony's wise investment strategies, but even Timony could not have so
quickly propelled the Wests into such high-rolling financial endeavors.
Rather, it seems that the family's underworld ties were paying off. Tillie, the
kindly German housewife and ambitious stage mother, was almost certainly
acting as a front for one of New York's most powerful crime bosses, Owney
Madden. Later, rumors circulated that he owned the Harding.
Madden had good reasons for keeping a low profile. For most of his life,
he had been involved in crime. In 1902, at age eleven, he migrated from
England to New York's Hell's Kitchen, where as a young man he assumed
leadership of New York City's most violent gang, the Gophers. In addition
to theft and burglary, Madden's gang provided protection and secured votes
for Tammany Hall. In 191£, Madden's rise was halted by a stay in Sing Sing
for the murder of a rival gangster. After his early release in 1923, which
some attributed to his political ties, Madden quickly moved in on the boot-
leg trade, made lucrative by the federal Prohibition laws that had gone into
effect in 1920.
Madden quickly amassed a fortune. He provided the public with Mad-
den's No. i , one of New York's most popular beers—for both its quality
and the dire consequences of rejecting it. Although it was deadly to cross
Madden, he was known to be polite, gentlemanly, and cautious. He had
powerful friends in both City Hall and the New York City Police Depart-
ment. Some New Yorkers believed that he really ran the city. Many in the
working class and underclass regarded him as a Robin Hood. He was famous
SHIMADONNA 67
for helping out friends and strangers and also for his charitable contributions
to the Catholic Church.
As his wealth grew, Madden invested in other business endeavors, many
of them, like the Harding Hotel, legitimate. He despised publicity and
avoided the limelight, remaining a silent partner and seeking business associ-
ates who were willingo to act as his fronts. As a result,' the extent of his finan-
cial empire was unclear. However, as his fortune rose, his presence was
detectable in New York City's sports, entertainment, and nightclub scenes.
Madden backed boxers and Broadway shows. (It was rumored he even in-
vested in Hollywood studios.) He also partnered with Texas Guinan, Man-
hattan's colorful nightclub
o
hostess famous for her o greetingo "Hello,' suckers!"
He sponsored her El Fey Club and later her Three Hundred Club just down
the block from the Harding. Even more important, he was the money and
power behind Harlem's famous Cotton Club, which showcased the best
African-American entertainers of the era. The club's clientele was exclu-
sively white, and Madden used the place to sell his alcohol.35
How the Wests came to know the powerful bootlegger and gang chieftain
1 OO O O
is not certain. However,' theyJ had longO maintained ties to organized

O
crime
and could have easily been acquainted with Madden even before his stay in
Sing Sing. (He most likely saw Mae perform in 1916 at the White Rats Sing
Singo benefit show.)' Forging
o o a relationship r with Madden during o the 19208
-^
was one of the smartest moves Tillie had made thus far. It catapulted the
Wests into a profitable financial arrangement; with these connections, Mae
could afford to work for $ i 2£ a week. Additionally, Tillie must have hoped
that Madden would open doors for her talented daughter.
West claimed that she first met Madden at the Hardingo and found him en-
ticingo because he was "so sweet and so vicious." One of the hotel's residents
claimed that for a time West and Madden were romantically involved. In
later years, when pressed about his relationship with her, Madden simply
smiled fondly. Regardless, he became a close family friend and provided Mae
with an entree into the elite of gangland society. He also furthered her ties to
the African-American community. Through Madden, she attended the Cot-
ton Club's floor shows and befriended the headliners, most importantly the
leader of the house band,' Duke Ellington.
o
Mae had frequented African-American nightspots since her Chicago days
and continued to do so once she returned to New York. She did visit the
Cotton Club's whites-only competitor Connie's Inn, but reportedly she pre-
ferred mixed-race clubs and was even welcomed in places that excluded
most whites. African-American pianist Willie "the Lion" Smith remembered
black nightclub owner Johnny Carey escorting her at his club, The Nest,
68 * MAE * WEST
which offered some of Harlem's finest musical entertainment, ' including O
performances by "the Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith. In the early

morning hours, West frequented Pod and Jerry's Catagonia Club, which
served Madden's No. i as well as the best breakfast in town. Harlem
nightlife fed her creative appetite as she sharpened her performance. Most
important, it thrust her into the midst of a critical moment in African-
American history, the Harlem Renaissance.
Since childhood West had appropriated African-American culture, but
her exposure to the burgeoning renaissance that swept Harlem in the 19205
reinforced her connections with the black community. In the 19205, Harlem
was an exhilarating place. It hosted the largest black population of any city in
the world and became a magnet to that drew black artists,' musicians,' enter-
tainers, writers, religious leaders, intellectuals, and political activists. With
this convergence came a celebration of African-American history, culture,
and contributions, as well as a revitalized drive to fight racism. Jazz and the
blues flourished; African-American art and literature thrived. Furthermore,
white interest in black culture continued to increase, bringingO O
it more into
the American mainstream. By the mid-19208, whites—many of them en-
tertainers supplementing their performances by stealing bits of African-
American culture—haunted the nightclubs
O
of Harlem.36
By now, West had long been a practitioner of jazz and the blues. But she
was in a continual process of revising her stage identity, and the Harlem Re-
naissance only spurred on her efforts to incorporate more African-American
music and dance into her performance. She became a familiar figure at the
Gaiety Theater Building and the offices of African-American composers, in-
cluding the father of the blues, W. C. Handy. There West met Andy Razaf,
James P. Johnson, and Perry Bradford, all highly successful African-American
songwriters who had written some of the era's biggest hits.
West also looked to African-American dance masters. She worked with
Buddy Bradley, who ran a Manhattan dance academy. Famous for his precise
technique, Bradley mentored numerous white performers, among them
Fred and Adele Astaire. West was also coached by Willie Covan, a
Chicagoan celebrated for his grace and agility. Despite his exceptional tal-
ents, like many black performers, he found the rigid color line prevented
him from achieving stardom. But he remembered West, who was his first
pupil, as an ally. With her encouragement he opened a studio and became
one of the nation's most sought-after
O
dance instructors.37
Still, many African Americans who supplied white performers with ma-
terial and training felt a deep resentment against the racism that stymied
their own careers. Some regarded
o white performers
r who pillaged
r o their cul-
SHIMADONNA 69
ture with contempt. (Throughout the 19205, whites continued to appropri-

ate black culture, rarely acknowledging the source.) Additionally, many
Harlemites were offended by whites who made a practice of "slumming" in
their community. Several African-American club owners declared their
nightspots off limits to whites. Bessie Smith almost always refused to per-
form in whites-only clubs, despising those who sought out thrills at the black
community's expense.
Mae West participated liberally in this cultural theft, to such a point that
later one journalist actually compared her blues delivery to Smith's. And
while West was supportive of African Americans like Covan, in the 19208
she remained a behind-the-scenes champion. During these years, she never
publicly protested racism or discrimination. In private, it was rumored, she
forged very personal relationships with African Americans, pursuing affairs
with black male athletes and performers. At the same time, she continued to
exploit their culture for her own ends.
Like most aspects of Mae West's life, her relationship with African-American
culture and her connections to the black community were complex. Perry
Bradford recalled West's maid Bea Jackson dropping by his office to pick up
a copy of "He May Be Your Man but He Comes to See Me Sometimes" for
Mae. JJackson was a friend of blues man Fats Waller and songwriter
to
Sheldon
Brooks and was nicknamed "Hot Story Telling" for her colorful yarns. She
worked for West for years, and Mae became tightly bonded to her. For visi-
tors, Mae produced photographs with her skin tone tinted brown to high-
light her resemblance to Jackson. When entertainment reporter Sidney
Skolsky dropped in on Mae in 1930, he exclaimed in his column, "Mae West
has a colored maid who is a dead ringero
for her." Whether or not West was
attempting to claim a real or imagined African heritage, she certainly was
challenging society's assumptions regarding the invariable nature of race.
Her actions may have also revealed, in a characteristically covert fashion,
West's deep identification with African Americans. It was extremely impor-
tant that in the mid-twenties, as Mae West was just about to enter her most
productive and successful years in theater, Bea "Hot Story Telling" Jackson
became a constant presence in her life.38
F * O * U * R *
Speaking of the Influence

of the Jo ok
Speaking of the influence of the Jook, I noted that Mae West

in "Sex" had much more flavor of the turpentine quarters than
she did of the white bawd. I know that the piece she played on
the piano is a very old Jook Composition. "Honey let yo'
drawers hang down low" has been played and sung in every
Jook in the South for at least thirty-five years. It has always
puzzled me why she thought it likely to be played in a Cana-
dian bawdy house.
— Zora Neale Hurston,
"Characteristics of Negro Expression," 1934
ne day, Mae West and some friends sat stuck in New York City
O traffic. In a rush, she ordered her driver to take a shortcut past

the waterfront, and as her car rolled past the docks she spied a
young woman with a sailor on each arm. West described her as
attractive but with "blonde hair, over bleached and all frizzy . . . a lot of
make-up on and a tight black satin coat that was all wrinkled and soiled. . . .
She had runs in her stockings and she had this little turban on and a big beau-
tiful bird of paradise." Mae remarked to her companions, "You wonder this
dame wouldn't put half a bird of paradise on her head and the rest of the
money into a coat and stockings." But as her friends speculated that the bird
of paradise was probably a seafaring John's recompense and that this woman
of the streets at best made only fifty cents to two dollars a trick, Mae grew
enraged. Certainly she was worldly enough to know about prostitution, yet
she recalled, "I was really upset about that." She insisted it disturbed her to
witness such exploitation of a woman—and also to realize that a woman
could be so ignorant of her potential for exploiting her exploitation.
7°
S P E A K I N G OF THE I N F L U E N C E OF THE JOOK Jl
Mae continued to ponder the waterfront waif. "I kept thinking, 'Fifty
cents! How many guys would she have to have to pay her rent, buy her
food?' " She claimed she dreamed of the woman that night, O
awakeningO the
J
next morning still contemplating her hard luck. "And then I said," she told
Life magazine, "Is it possible? Is this the play I am going to write?" She real-
ized that she had mentally "remade" this scarlet woman, envisioning her on a
path that led out of the slums to a better life, a transformation easily
achieved onstage. Inspired, she set out to write a new play.1
For some time, West had searched for a vehicle for a Broadway come-
back. She had spent several years reviewing scripts, rejecting them all as un-
satisfactory. But in 1924, about the time she received her waterfront
inspiration, a client of Timony's, John J. Byrne, showed up with a one-act
vaudeville skit called "Following the Fleet." Hearing that West was searching
O O O
for a scarlet-woman vehicle, something like Somerset Maugham's Rain, he

' O O '
had composed a story of a Montreal strumpet who makes a living by seduc-

ing British sailors. On West's behalf, Timony purchased Byrne's sketch for
$300. He then charged the writer $ 100 for acting as his agent and pressed
him to invest the rest in a real estate deal.
In December i q 2 c , working again with Adeline Leitzbach, West ex-
-^ -' ' O O
panded Byrne's sketch into a three-act play that she called The Albatross. In it,
she took a prostitute from Montreal's red light district to the mansions of
Westchester County, New York. Energized by her waterfront muse, West
claimed ideas spilled forth on paper bags, stationery, envelopes, and old
scraps of paper that she forwarded to Timony's secretaries for transcription.
But Mae's dedication wavered. To keep her on the task, Timony began
locking her in her room, refusing to let her out until she had finished writ-
O ' O
ing. It not only forced her to work but prevented her from seeing other men,
demonstrating the great degree of control he maintained over her. Her ac-
ceptance of this treatment indicates that the private Mae West had yet to
achieve the forcefulness and confidence of her fantasized stage presence.2
After The Albatross was drafted, Timony and West set out to find backers.
Their first choice was the Shuberts, and she sent them her script under a pseu-
donym, Jane Mast. She quickly received a curt rejection note. In fact, none of
Broadway's producers, big or small, were interested, so West and Timony de-
cided to raise the money and produce the play themselves. Timony put in a
share and later convinced Harry Cohen, a Manhattan clothier, to kick in a loan
of almost $4,000. As producer, he recruited C. William Morganstern, the for-
mer proprietor of Pittsburgh's Family Theater, where West had performed in
191 2; his most current endeavor involved producing Broadway's Love's Call,
one of the biggest disasters of 1924. But funds still fell short, and Tillie, with
72 M A E * WEST
the help of Owney Madden, supplied the balance. Tiniony then incorporated
their endeavor as the Morals Production Corporation.
Recruiting a director proved difficult. Several candidates turned down
the job outright, insisting that the script was too bawdy for legitimate the-
ater. Another prospect demanded extensive revisions. West immediately re-
jected him. Finally, Timony arranged for a meeting with Edward Eisner, a
small-time director whose most recent undertakings had been total flops,
one a comedy rated by a reviewer as "monotony." West presented her script
by reading it out loud to him, since he had conveniently forgotten his
glasses, and as she finished, she claimed he cried out, "By God! You've done
it! You've got it! This is it!"3
O
Finding a cast was also a challenge, for West was attempting her Broad-
way comeback in the midst of controversy. For several seasons, the Great
White Way had hosted a series of "sex plays," including Lulu Belle, the story
of a mixed-race prostitute who slept her way to Paris, and The Shanghai Gesture,
the chronicle of a madam of a Chinese brothel and her rage against men.
These productions stirred a call for a cleanup of the city's stages. As a result,
career-minded actors and actresses, fearful of negative backlash, steered
' O '
clear of Mae West and similar ventures. Beyond this, the Morals Production
Corporation's salaries were not competitive, forcing West to sign up a cast
of unknowns. On a tight budget, she used Beverly as her understudy, acted as
barber to male cast members, and borrowed old scenery from a former bur-
lesque producer.
Securing a theater proved to be another problem. Booking space on
Broadway was costly and competitive; shows had to demonstrate potential
profitability. Disappointingly, all the venues in Manhattan's theater district were
either occupied, not interested, or too expensive. Finally, Timony discovered
one possibility: Daly's Sixty-third Street Theater, a small off-Broadway house.
Daly's had a reputation for experimentation; in 1921, it hosted the success-
ful all-black revue Shuffle Along. Even more important, the management
agreed to waive normal up-front charges in exchange for 40 percent of the
show's profits.4
During rehearsals West's play took final form. While she already had a
completed script, at Eisner's suggestion she retooled it, urging the cast to
improvise and reshape their roles. For her part, she found Eisner a catalyst
for the exploration
1
of her full rangeO
of talents,' making
O
her more aware of
her performance's verbal and nonverbal nuances. As she remembered, he
observed, "You have a quality—a strange amusing quality that I have never
found in any of these other women. You have a definite sexual quality, gay
and unrepressed. It even mocks you personally." While Eisner may have
S P E A K I N G OF THE I N F L U E N C E OF THE JOOK 73
been a third-rate director, he understood West's strongest asset, a style that

rested in signification and communicated sensuality that was both serious
and satirical. With his guidance, she further honed her ability to offer con-
flictingo messages
o
and double meanings. o
West's play continued to evolve until just before the curtain rang up on its
first tryout performance in Waterbury, Connecticut. Just hours before
opening, she had another inspiration. After listening for weeks to Eisner rave
about her "sex quality, a low sex quality," she had a revelation. She insisted
that the manager replace The Albatross on his marquee with a new title —
SEX. Her first night in Waterbury produced excellent box office, bringing in
several thousand dollars.5
Shortly afterward, the company traveled to New London, Connecticut,
for more trial performances. Despite the play's bold new title, the opening
night's audience numbered only eighty-five by curtain time. But, West in-
sisted,' the followingO
day's
J
matinee was a O great morale booster. That morn-
ing, the U.S. naval fleet arrived in port, and that afternoon sailors, lured by
the sign reading SEX, lined up around the block for tickets. Their reception
was more than enthusiastic. "Believe me," West told a reporter later, "I'll
never forget the Navy."6
SEX returned to Manhattan and, promoted with ads reading "SEX with
Mae West," opened at Daly's Theater on April 26, 1926. The premiere was
well attended, but the production still had some rough spots. One actor's
collar kept springing up, a window shade refused to stay rolled down, and a
loud bang offstage interrupted one scene. The sound effects for a champagne
cork's pop occurred several conspicuous seconds after the bottle had been
opened. But the play's blunders were minor in comparison to its "frankness."
One reviewer complained, "We were shown not sex but lust—stark naked
lust." Early in the program, several patrons left in disgust, and by the third
act, empty seats dotted the theater. Judging by the newspapers, the opening
night audience's reaction was mixed. Some sat quietly stunned, while others
roared with laughter,
O '
shoutingO out their approval
11
at choice moments.7
SEX was a little bit of Rain, Lulu Belle, and Shanghai Gesture thrown to-
gether with some vaudeville, old-fashioned melodrama, and burlesque.
Manhattan had never seen anything like it. West conceived of it as dualistic, a
"comedy-drama" oscillating between travesty and tragedy. It centered on the
escapades of Margy Lament, a lady, as one critic noted, "of the evening—
and of, for that matter, the afternoon and morning too." With her pimp,
Rocky Waldron, Margy works the streets of Montreal but has wearied of
cheap hustling. She confesses to a friend that she now aspires "to the top of
my profession." She muses, "Why not? Others do it, why can't I? ... It's all a
74 M A E * WEST
question of getting some guy to pay for the certain business, that's all." In the
midst of planning her new life, Margy accepts a dinner invitation from a for-
mer customer, Lieutenant Gregg, a British naval officer who presents her
with a gift—a bird of paradise.8
When Margy and Gregg later return to her flat, they discover a wealthy
blue blood, Clara, unconscious. While slumming in the red light district, she
has overdosed on drugs, and Rocky has ditched her, leaving her for dead.
Margy
oJ brings
o her around,' savingo her life. But when a policeman
r arrives on
the scene, Clara accuses Margy of drugging her in an attempt to steal her
jewels. Margy vows revenge.
Margy decides to leave Montreal with Gregg and "follow the fleet." She
OJ OO
ends up in Trinidad, where a young millionaire, Jimmy Stanton, mistakes

her for a vacationing heiress and falls in love with her. Both Stanton and
O
Gregg
oo
seek her hand in marriage.
o
Gregg
oo o
gets a turndown,' Margy
oJ
confiding: o
Why ever since I've been old enough to know Sex, I've looked at men as
hunters. They're filled with Sex. In the past few years, I've been chattel to
the Sex. All the bad that's in me has been put there by men. I began to
hate every one of them, hated them, used them for what I could get out of
them, and then laughed at them, and then—then he came.
She accepts Stanton's proposal, departing with him to meet his parents at
their Westchester estate.9
To Margy's
oy shock,7 Stanton's mother turns out to be Clara,7 the woman she
rescued in Montreal. Privately, Clara threatens to expose Margy's true iden-
tity to her son. "Say, you've got the nerve putting yourself on a pedestal
above me," Margy admonishes her. "The things I've done, I had to do for a
living. I know it was wrong. I'm not trying to alibi myself. But you've done
those same things for other reasons." She observes, "The only difference be-
tween you and me is that you could afford to give it away." Instead, it is the
society matron's past that returns to haunt her. Rocky Waldron shows up
demanding hush money. Margy stops Clara from murdering him. After
turning Rocky over to the authorities, Margy confesses her wanton past to
Jimmy. "Mrs. Stanton, I'm giving you back your boy," she says. She turns to
Lieutenant Gregg, who has arrived on the scene, declaring her intention to
go "straight—to
o o
Australia."10
Early on, SEX's future looked dim. The Morals Production Corporation
had little money for a publicity campaign, and within the first week atten-
dance lagged. The reviews were disappointing. The more stodgy New York
dailies agreed to downplay SEX'sSsensationalism and blast it as inept and am-
S P E A K I N G OF THE I N F L U E N C E OF THE JOOK J$
ateurish. One of these, the New York Times, branded SEX as "feeble and dis-
jointed," declaring that Montreal, Trinidad, and Westchester possessed "am-
ple cause for protest." The New Yorker was far less kind, declaring it a "poor
balderdash of street sweepings and cabaret sentimentality unexpurgated in
tone." Variety summed up the reaction of many, proclaiming SEX a "disgrace,"
with "nasty, infantile, amateurish and vicious dialogue." While the play was
attributed to the mysterious Jane Mast, no one was fooled. All blamed Mae
West for what one reviewer condemned "as bad a play as these inquiring eyes
have Ogazed upon
1
in three seasons."11
But with the help of word of mouth and several lurid reviews in the city's
tabloids, curiosity began to draw New Yorkers to Daly's little off-Broadway
theater. Before long, more and more came. When writer Robert Benchley at-
tended, he noted that "at the corner of Central Park West and Sixty-Third
Street we ran into a line of people which seemed to be extending in the gen-
eral direction of Daly's Theatre . . . and what was more, the people standing
in line were clutching, not complimentary passes, but good, green dollar
bills." Within a few weeks, SEX was a hit, seats in the house went for top dol-
lar, and it began to turn a nice profit. While it slipped during the hot summer,
its low overhead helped SEX generate strong returns for the rest of the year.
SEX attracted a wide range of fans. Many rank-and-file New Yorkers, es-
pecially the men, supported West's efforts. In addition to writers like
Benchley, Harlem Renaissance figures like writer Zora Neale Hurston made
their way to Daly's. It also became a fashionable outing for the New York
elite, who during the 19208 demanded increasingly more scintillating expe-
riences. Benchley observed that "each night soft-purring limousines roll up
with theatre parties of gentry, out 'just for a lark.' "12
In the 19205, New York's rich smart set perfected "slumming," thrill-
seekingo excursions to poorer
r and rougher
o sections of town. SEX took its
place next to speakeasies, nightclubs, and dens of iniquity found in the Bow-
ery, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, and Harlem. Journalist Elizabeth Yea-
man later remembered that "some of the so-called highbrows o
would venture
to her [West's] theater in something of the spirit that they would go on a
slumming tour."13 In a sense, West presented them with a voyeur's delight, a
virtual reality where the elite could immerse themselves in the world of an
impoverished prostitute without ever having to leave the safety of their the-
ater seats. Mae West made slumming easy.
O J
Yet it was not as simple as it appeared. For while the spectators sat snugly
protected in the darkened theater, they became her marks. SEX mocked
many of its most devoted fans. West used Margy to signify on those who at-
tended SEX for a titillating peek at life's seamier side. Margy deplores slum-
j6 M A E * WEST
ming's
O
disingenuousness
O
and exploitation,
1 '
labeling
O
Clara as "one of those re-
spectable society dames who poses as decent, and is looking for the first
chance to cheat without being found out." While the audience chuckled
away, they became unknowing victims of Margy's, and Mae's, disdainful in-
dictment of their behavior.
With SEX, West clearly began an exploration of class conflict. Margy de-
spises the upper class and rages against Clara's dishonesty and hypocrisy. "I
don't count, I suppose. Because I'm what I am. But, I'll tell you . . . if I ever
get a chance, I'll get even with you, you dirty charity, I'll get even." Identify-
ing Clara as a "charity" girl, slang for a woman who traded sex for gifts or
thrills, Margy exposes the duplicity of the upper class, the perpetrators of
rigid Victorian standards that even they fail to uphold. Margy never evens
the score with Clara; she is above that. But West did secure revenge on
Clara's kind, those pedigreed sensation seekers filling Daly's seats, who
snickered not only at Margy but, through SEX's mirror, at themselves. West
was well aware she had created such a reflection, describing her work as "a
mirror which tells the truth."14
In a similar manner, SEX criticized the male audience members who came
to hoot and holler as Margy cavorted from Montreal to Westchester. Margy
is not only of easy virtue but constructed as the epitome of desirability. Her
irresistible beauty is constantly anticipated and reinforced. At the same time,
Margyoy revealed West's ambivalence about men and sex. Margy's oy characteri-
zation of men as rpredators and her admitted hatred for them,' blamingo all
that was "bad" in her on men, operates as a blunt expose of Mae's anger with
and rebellion against men. Like The Hussy's Nona Ramsey, Margy views men
in economic terms, seeking liaisons for material gain. SEX reinforced this
' O O
philosophy, for with this cut-rate, off-Broadway production, West fleeced

male customers who were drawn in by both SEX and sex.
Significantly, West established her sensuality and desirability with an im-
age that ran counter to the popular female archetype, the flapper. In part,
this was by necessity. Now thirty-three, West was full-figured and did not
possess the 19205' voguish slim, flat-chested, and "boyish" physique. It did
not go unnoticed—one critic decried her as "over plump"—but West chose
to exploit rather than downplay her difference. Embracing her natural body,
she used it to assert herself physically over SEX's male characters. "The curve
is more powerful than the sword," she later maintained. Mae had begun to
construct her body as both a weapon of resistance and a battlefield, a place
to wage war. Again, as in The Hussy, she asserted that women are in reality
stronger than men. Several publicity stills pictured Margy towering over her
male admirers, one even helplessly sprawled under her on a chair.15
In addition to recycling themes from The Hussy, West experimented with

yet another device that became a hallmark of her work—an ambiguous end-
ing. Unlike The Hussy's cross-class romance, in SEX Margy succumbs to Lieu-
tenant Gregg, a man of similar class standing. At one level, it affirmed the
impossibility of transcending class boundaries. However, thanks to Clara, up-
ward mobility appears less than desirable, for truthfulness, loyalty, and
courage really belong to the underclasses. Margy is not like Nona; she really
does not aspire to enter the Social Register. And while Margy indicates that
she will "go straight," it remains unclear whether that means she is going to
O O ' O &
marry Gregg or continue in her old ways and just follow him to Australia.
The New York Herald Tribune's Percy Hammond certainly read Margy's plans
as more licentious, reporting that, in the end, she "abandons the precincts of
respectability to return to the crimson life."16
Critical elements of the fictionalized Mae Westian persona were coming
together. Reviewers noted her rolling walk, domineering presence, and
unique timing. Margy Lamont is tough-talking and no-nonsense. Unlike
Nona, she is a genuine woman of ill repute. But she does possess a good soul.
Although filled with hostility for men and the rich, Margy is not singularly
overcome by her rage. Rather, she also enjoys herself. A naval officer asks,
"Miss Lamont, may I present Mr. Stanton?" One can easily hear the mature
Mae West hum, "Yes, you may."
But who is Margy Lamont? The play says nothing about her origins. Zora
Neale Hurston's observation that SEX owed more to the African-American
jook than it did to the white bawdy house indicates that at least culturally
Margy's roots lay closer to African Americans than to whites. When Margy
sits down at the Stantons' piano and plays "Home Sweet Home," Gregg com-
ments, "That doesn't sound a bit like you." She switches to the blues, remark-
ing, "It's not supposed to be." Margy's "whiteness" is even further contested.
Visiting a Trinidadian cafe, she joins in with the floor show. The other enter-
tainers perform old standards, sea songs, and tangos. But, backed by a jazz
band,' Margy sings
fey
blues numbers:
fe
"MyJ Sweet Man" and "Shake That Thing."o
For an encore, she shimmies to W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues." It prompted
one reviewer to compare the scene to "a Harlem cabaret we have seen further
downtown" and another to praise her rendition of "Sweet Man" as "very
Harlem and with a jazz dance right out of the eff-sharp department."17
West borrowed even more deeply from the blues, using it to structure
portions of SEX's dialogue. When Lieutenant Gregg drops in to see Margy,
he tells her, "Oh, I've got something for you. Wait until you see this, wait
until you see this."
"Well, come on," Margy demands.
7 8 M A E * W E S T
"You'll oget it,' you'll

J
get it,"' Gregg
o
promises. "I don't mind tellingo you
oo r J
I
had an awful time saving it for you. Why all the women were fighting for it."
"It better be good," she responds.
"It's ogood alright.
o
It's the best you
J
could oget,* but you've
J
got to be very
o J
careful not to bend it," he declares, and then offers her the bird of paradise.18
Their double-entendre, comedic exchange was a variation—or in jazz
terms, a riff—on blues man Papa Charlie Jackson's "I Got What It Takes but
It Breaks My Heart to Give It Away."
I save it up : since the Lord knows when,

I ain't saved a thing : because of any of you men.
I've had it so longo : I'd hate to lose it
Because ever gets broke : I'll be able to use it.19
Even more interesting, Jackson's song was intended for a woman. Placing a
woman's words in Lieutenant Gregg's mouth, West created a reversal: The
man rather than the woman "saves it up" and worries about "breaking it."
Still other blues elements appeared in SEX. As Houston Baker contends,
trains and riding the rails provide core motifs for the blues vernacular, which
records journeys and the dilemmas of reaching "junctures." He views the blues
and its singer as "travelers" that are "always at this intersection, this crossing,
codifying force, providing resonance for experience's multiplicities."20
Margy, also a blues singer, is one of those travelers who passes through a
series of crossings, rambling restlessly and perpetually moving on to the
next stop. She speaks not of a scarlet woman's life but of "experiencing that
experience/'narrating a story of anger, frustration, and determination to re-
sist her exploitation. As the trickster, she dupes men out of their money, hat-
ing them as they make love to her but immensely enjoying her own joke. As
the blues singer, she uses the blues to protest. West had reached a critical
juncture herself. In vaudeville, she had become a blues singer. Now, adding
another complexity to her stage identity, she was a blues singer playing a
prostitute who was playing a blues singer.
In many respects, both Margy and Mae emerged as tricksters, creating
chaos from order and order from chaos. How many in the audience compre-
hended West's intentions is unclear, but reactions, which puzzled critics, in-
dicated that some were in on the joke. One reviewer expressed amazement
at the "whooping, indeed, a little more happily in those sadder moments
when the affair degenerated into the moralistic and heroic." Similarly, Variety
noted that the "audience often laughs when it should weep."21 But the ambi-
guities of SEX, the multiplicity of meanings and messages, and its syncretism
of comedy and drama were all elements of the signification that Mae West
was in the process of perfecting. SEX's topsy-turvy world allowed Mae as
well as Margy to emerge triumphant.
Although SEX became a success and rapidly transformed Mae West into a
celebrity, if not a star, it also drew attention from Manhattan's moral watch-
dogs. SEX debuted just as many civic and religious leaders escalated their
calls for censorship1 of the stage.O
LeadingO
the charge
O
was Jlohn S. Sumner of
the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV), dedicated to
ridding the country of books, newspapers, magazines, artworks, or plays the
group deemed obscene. Sumner wielded a considerable power and counted
John D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan among his supporters.
The 19205 stage, having felt the impact of the raucous jazz age, presented
a particular challenge to Sumner. Under the influence of playwrights like
Eugene O'Neill, Broadway had ventured into more gritty realism and con-
troversial issues. Additionally, the jaded jazz generation's demand for more
sophistication as well as more titillation fed an impulse toward new, some-
times more realistic, and often more risque, drama. In Sumner's opinion, the
public had an alarming appetite for smut, and those with weaker psychologi-
cal constitutions or little education were easily addicted to the salacious. The
theater, he believed, was well positioned to strongly influence society and
had an ethical responsibility to play an uplifting role. Rather, he lamented,
Broadway, with its focus on profits, had sought out increasingly more licen-
tious plays.
Despite his strong feelings, Sumner initially opposed appointing a stage
censor. Instead, he helped organize a less severe alternative—the play jury,
empaneled by the district attorney. Twelve New York City residents were
recruited to attend and vote on the appropriateness of plays. It was a fairly
lenient system; a play remained open with only four affirmative votes. But
Sumner had faith that the good citizens of Manhattan would close down all
O
plays
1 J
endangering
O O
the morals of theatergoers.
O
With SEX's debut, Sumner moved quickly. In April, he paid a visit to

Daly's and immediately registered a complaint with the New York City po-
lice contending that SEX was "filthy and obscene." But what Sumner and even
drama critics saw was mild. Borrowing an old burlesque trick, West had two
versions of SEX, a tamer one for the press and moralists like Sumner and a
spicier one for the general public. In June, tipped off that the play jury was
about to visit the show, she played the blander version. The jury met, and
SEX fell one vote short of being shut down. With that announcement, atten-
dance skyrocketed. Notwithstanding, Sumner branded SEX as "moral poi-
son" and continued to agitate for its closure.22
O
80 M A E * WEST
Sumner's tone was echoed by many in the New York press, in particular
the tabloids, who offered some of SEX's harshest criticism. William Ran-
dolph Hearst's Daily Mirror was especially brutal, denouncing West's play as
"a monstrosity plucked from the garbage can, destined for the sewer." Ex-
posing SEX's depravity served two purposes for the Mirror's editors. First,
since Sumner had earlier taken aim at tabloids, by attacking SEX they testi-
fied that they were on the right moral track. Second, by informing the public
of the exact details of such vile controversy, they sold even more papers.23
Not everyone in the press followed suit. Alarmed by an escalating censor-
ship movement, the New York Herald Tribune and Variety ran follow-up reviews
that reversed their initial condemnations of SEX. Percy Hammond cele-
brated West's portrayal of Margy Lamont. "She is thoroughly cold and ma-
lign," he wrote, "an omen of damages that penalize foolishness and
O ' ' O i
wrongdoing." Others found Mae equally compelling. One critic, complain-

ing about SEX's "pathetically frantic vulgarity," conceded that "Miss West
goes on unperturbed—smooth, silky, and never at a loss." Variety's Jack
Conway celebrated her as "the Babe Ruth of stage prosties" and offered a
prophetic assessment: "It's realistic and realism all the way. Mae's conception
of Margie LaMont [sic] will sentence her to the scarlet sisterhood artistically
for life."24
Any attempt to drive SEX offstage was going to be a battle. West had her
friends. Owney Madden was not only a co-investor but also charged her a
protection fee. Seemingly his ties, as well as Timony's, to Tammany Hall
should have benefited Mae West, but Tammany's power had been waning for
years. Additionally, the debate over censorship was tied to thorny New York
City and state politics. On the local level, it appeared that key factions pro-
tected plays like SEX. Instrumental was New York City's mayor Jimmy
Walker, a Tammany Hall Democrat with strong show business ties. A former
songwriter and patron of Texas Guinan's, he was a major impediment to
Sumner's campaigns. Facing this powerful opposition, Manhattan courts
seemed unlikely, despite Sumner's agitation, to shut down any New York
production, even SEX.
An even more powerful player in the debate was New York governor Al
Smith, another son of Tammany Hall, who was preparing to run for presi-
dent in 1928. While he did not share Walker's close ties to show business,
he was philosophically opposed to censorship. Republicans, aware that cen-
sorship was a political hot potato for Smith, gladly pushed the issue to the
forefront. Their efforts were assisted by newspaper publisher Hearst, an op-
position Democrat and longtime Smith opponent. Using his papers to exac-
erbate the situation, Hearst attacked Broadway and expounded on the need
SPEAKING OF THE I N F L U E N C E OF THE JOOK 81
for a stage censor. Ideally, the state assembly's Republican majority would
pass a censorship bill forcing a Smith veto that would undermine his presi-
dential aspirations. While Mae West rarely expressed overt interest in
American politics, SEX propelled her into a vigorous battle between com-
peting political interests.25
Into the fall, Sumner continued to demand that the city take action
against Mae West. However, he had his hands full, for the 1 9 2 6 — 1 9 2 7 the-
atrical season produced two more controversial productions. First, and most
successful, was The Captive, based on Marcel Proust's novel on female same-
sex love. Next came The Virgin Man, a story of a Yalie who struggles to retain
his virtue against female seductresses. Many hailed The Captive as high drama,
while moralists lumped it in with SEX and The Virgin Man as a "dirt play."25
SEX and the agitation against it kept Mae West occupied. Tiring of com-
muting from her parents' Woodhaven home, she booked a suite at the
Mayflower Hotel. For the first time, Mae had left the family nest. While her
circle of acquaintances grew, Timony, her family, and Madden and his friends
remained her closest ties. Although work took up much of her time, she was
spotted at Harlem nightclubs, upscale restaurants, prizefights, and Texas
Guinan's.
West established a close rapport with Guinan, who was warm, kind, and
generous.
o
Unlike Mae,' Texas was outgoing
to
and made
to
friends easily.
J
Believing
to
she was a reincarnated "wise, Oriental soul," Texas was fascinated by Eastern
philosophy and spiritualism, and she may have been one of the first to intro-
duce Mae to these religious
O
alternatives. In late August
O
1926,
•* '
Mae and Texas
hosted a seance to contact the recently deceased Rudolph Valentino's spirit.
One guest remembered Texas leading the gathering as Mae sat quietly ob-
serving. But just as they seemed to make contact with the silver screen's
most celebrated lover, a loud crash broke the link. When the lights came up,
entangled
O
in a mess of foldingO chairs were two latecomers,' Texas's brother
Tommy and Owney Madden.
Madden's connections provided West with many opportunities, and dur-
ing the run of SEX, she developed a close bond with his boyhood friend
Georgeto Raft. A dancer and former boxer,' Raft was handsome and,' like Mad-
den, dapper and low-key. Although he continued to work for the gangster,
running errands and even riding shotgun on predawn bootleg deliveries, with
Madden's help Raft had worked his way into the nightclub circuit, often per-
forming at Guinan's. In 1926, Madden assigned Raft to a late-night visit to
Daly's to collect his share of SEX's box office receipts. Before long, Raft began
spending more time in the leading lady's dressing room. Unlike Richman,
Raft was not one to brag, but many believed that he and Mae had a passionate
82 M A E * WEST
affair. If they did, it was short-lived, for Raft soon left to tour Europe with a
dance act. Regardless,
o '
he would remain one of West's few close friends.27
For Mae West, 1926 had been a successful year in more ways than one.
Good or bad, she was the talk of Broadway as Sumner and his legions contin-
ued to wage their battles to clean up the stage. And while pressure to drive
SEX off the boards increased, West contemplated an even more daring ven-
ture. One evening, she had Timony escort her to a Greenwich Village
nightspot to attend a show put on by a group of female impersonators. Af-
terward, she gave each a free pass for the next evening's performance of
SEX. Those who attended were invited to audition for Jane Mast's latest
comedy-drama, The Drag.
This was not West's first exposure to the gay subculture; she had patron-
ized similar establishments in Harlem. Additionally, she had known many
gays during her long career in burlesque, vaudeville, and the theater. Now,
though, West claimed she had become curious about homosexuality because
of an actor whom she met duringo her run in SEX. She found him enchanting; 7
o
he sent her flowers. But her interest waned after she learned that he had
been married and fathered a child, was divorced, and was also bisexual.
West insisted that this experience compelled her to study differing psy-
chological interpretations of homosexuality. Although she became familiar
with Sigmund
o
Freud and Richard von Krafft-Ebing, cv
she favored Karl Hein-
rich Ulrich, a mid-nineteenth-century gay intellectual who advanced the
theory that homosexuals represented an "intermediate" sex, possessing both
male and female qualities. She also subscribed to psychologist Havelock El-
lis's theory that homosexuals were "inverts," born with drives that had been
turned inward. Although West stated that she believed homosexuality "a
danger to the entire social system of western civilization," she also expressed
sympathy for most gay men, whom she perceived as female spirits burdened
with men's bodies. West bragged oo that she had warned police,
r ' "When you're
j
hitting one of those guys, you're hitting a woman." However, she also divided
homosexual men into two categories. o
The first,' "born homosexuals," '
she
found acceptable, a result of biological makeup. The second she labeled "en-
vironmental" homosexuals. In her opinion, these were secretive degenerates
driven by acquired urges for unnatural sexual thrills.28
West's fascination with gay subculture was not unique for the era. Histo-
rian George Chauncey argues that during Prohibition, gay and cross-dressing
performers experienced a heightened popularity in New York City. Extrava-
gant drag balls where female impersonators performed for prizes were pop-
ular diversions for New York's smart set. Many Manhattan nightspots
featured openly gay entertainers as well as drag queens. Two of the era's
most celebrated entertainers were female impersonators Julian Eltinge and

Bert Savoy. Eltinge, who presented tasteful tunes while outfitted in exquisite
gowns, was hailed for his uncanny ability to replicate feminine beauty. Savoy
dressed outrageously and enacted a loud, comedic, love-starved tart, famous
for his/her exuberant invitation "You must come over." Gay performers and
female impersonators were in such demand in the 19208 that observers de-
clared Manhattan was in the grip of a "pansy craze." West, who recruited
forty Greenwich Villagers for The Drag, was obviously attempting to cash in
on this trend.29
West's goal was to achieve authenticity, and she arrived at the first re-
hearsal with only an outline for The Drag. She did not intend to appear in the
play herself but rather hoped to write and direct it, with Eisner's assistance.
Drawing on his directorial methods, she encouraged the drag queens and gay
performers to ad-lib their roles; from there, she began refining her script. A
journalist who later watched West at work described her technique as "spon-
taneous combustion . . . these players, by their physical types, suggest story
and speeches to her and thus drama takes form orally in the first instance,
only to become a completed script when the curtain is ready to rise on its
premiere." Eisner had shown her how to get the best from her performance,
and that, she became convinced, was the most effective way to develop the-
ater. By mid-January 1927, spectators filled the seats during rehearsals at
Daly's. Variety's correspondent, who sneaked a preview, castigated The Drag
as a "sex perversion exposition" but praised the players' improvisation as
"natural and spontaneous."30
As The Drag was rehearsing, voices calling for censorship grew louder.
When John Sumner, also a foe of the gay community, heard of The Drag's
pending Broadway premiere, he called more stridently for a ban of such pro-
ductions from the New York stage. He joined others who now criticized the
play jury, which in three years had closed only one play. The district attor-
ney, Joab H. Ban ton, also a Tammanyite, defended his office's oversight of
the jury. Banton argued that it was difficult to recruit jurors and that often
those who accepted theater tickets later refused to file their reports. Cer-
tainly, that process, which entailed a face-to-face evaluation in his office,
proved
1
daunting,
7
O
if not threatening,
&'
for those called to serve.
That January, the climate seemed to change. Under pressure from censor-
ship proponents, Jimmy Walker met with Broadway producers, warning that
if plays were not toned down, censorship was inevitable. District Attorney
Banton also chimed in, declaring that it was "about time that we clean up the
salacious plays." Such high-minded denunciations simply fueled public cu-
riosity, sending even more people to see SEX.3}
84 * MAE * WEST
Despite the public's similar curiosity about The Drag, Tirnony could only
secure half a week at Poli's Park, a Bridgeport, Connecticut, burlesque house.
On Monday, January 31, 1927, the Morals Production Corporation stretched
a banner that read, "The Drag by the author of SEX, more sensational than Rain
or The Captive" across Bridgeport's main street. New Yorkers lured by gossip
surrounding West's latest undertaking paid premium prices for reserved
seats. West claimed it drew fans from Boston to Philadelphia. It also brought
out the New York City Police Department's James Sinnott.
After tense last-minute negotiations with Bridgeport's police, that evening
the curtain went up on the first public performance of The Drag. For the next
several hours, the audience received a glimpse into gay life through the eyes
of Mae West. The Drag centered on the heartbreak of a woman, Clair, daugh-
ter of a prominent physician, Dr. James Richardson. She is married to Roily
Kingsbury, son of a respected judge. Although Roily is a kind husband, Clair's
marriage is loveless. She is unaware of the cause, but it is clear: Roily is gay. In
fact, his spurned lover, David, seeks help from Dr. Richardson. Roily has
fallen in love with his straight business associate Allen Grayson. When
Grayson, who loves Clair, learns of Roily's affections, he explodes with anger.
It is not Roily's gayness that bothers him but his treatment of Clair. "I think
that's the most contemptible thing you could do," Grayson shouts. "Marry a
woman and use her as a cloak to cover up what you really are."32
A few days later, while Clair is away, Roily throws an elaborate drag ball.
His guests arrive, one by one, in drag finery, exchanging catty quips and in-
sults. One drag queen, Winnie, greets another, Hell's Kitchen Kate, "My but
you're getting thin." Kate exclaims, "I can at least cling to a man without
wearing him out. You're terribly fat." Winnie shouts, "Fat! I should say not!
I'm the type that men prefer. I can at least go through the Navy Yard without
having the flags drop to half mast." But Kate refuses to concede: "I'm just the
type that men crave. The type that burns 'em up. Why when I walk up
Tenth Avenue, you can smell the meat sizzling in Hell's Kitchen." A police
raid ends the frivolity and sends the guests scrambling. Roily promises to fix
everything with the authorities and, escaping arrest, retires to bed. Offstage
a shot rings out. Roily's butler finds him murdered.
Everyone gathers at the murder scene, and Dr. Richardson arrives with
David, who confesses that his broken heart drove him to kill Roily. Out-
raged, Judge Kingsbury threatens to strangle David, who passionately re-
sponds:
Strangle me, strangle me! You Judge Kingsbury—the great supporter of

justice—you would crush me, destroy me—but your son was the same
SPEAKING OF THE I N F L U E N C E OF THE JOOK 85
as I. ... When you condemn me, you condemn him. A judge's son can be
just the same as another man's son.
Detectives hustle David away. Left alone with Judge Kingsbury, Richardson
pleads with him for compassion, reminding him that both families possess
unblemished reputations. As the play closes, Kingsbury orders Roily's death
to be recorded as a suicide.33
With the exception of a drunk who wandered in and, expecting a bur-
lesque show, began complaining loudly and a middle-aged couple who left in
a huff, the audience's reception was exuberant. Many lingered after the show
to congratulate the cast. One journalist reported that The Drag became the
talk of Bridgeport; he had happened upon a group of residents listening in-
tently to an animated description of the play by one of the few who had se-
cured a ticket. But critics overwhelmingly condemned The Drag, Variety
blasting it as "an inexpressibly brutal and vulgar attempt to capitalize on a
dirty matter for profit." When newspapermen approached James Sinnott,
inquiring about the play's future in New York City, he smiled and re-
sponded, "No comment."34
While still in Bridgeport, the production ran into a minor setback. On
February 2 at five in the morning, the police arrested Beverly West and Ed-
ward Eisner after a loud fight
o
broke out in his hotel room. Authorities found
the couple alone, and Eisner was half-dressed. Although the case was dis-
missed, Serge Trashatny immediately initiated divorce proceedings against
Beverly. Eisner moved on with the Drag troupe to play out the week in Pater-
son, New Jersey. Next, they went on to Bayonne, New Jersey, where the
first performance was a sellout. But just before the second began, as over
five hundred people stood in line for tickets, local authorities announced
that they were closing the play and banning it permanently from Bayonne.35
Back in New York, Jim Timony was fighting for a Broadway berth. Oppo-
sition to The Drag was growing, however, and the drive for censorship was
gaining momentum. Guardians of good taste pushed for a stage censor, a po-
litical appointee with broad powers to safeguard Broadway from such obscene
productions. Alarmed, Broadway executives gathered to discuss the crisis,
placing most of the blame for the censorship threat on The Drag. Fearing that
The Drag would result in the selection of an unfriendly censor and a rash of
play closures, they agreed to block its New York premiere and demanded that
Timony abandon the production. Timony declared that only when The Captive
was pulled off the stage would he even consider canceling The Drag.
SEX may have been controversial, but The Drag was dangerous. One
Broadway producer, William de Lignemare, proclaimed, "The Drag, I believe,
86 M A E * W E S T
is the worst possible play I have ever heard of contemplating an invasion of

New York. That production . . . strikes at the decency of manhood." While
in many ways West may have been following a popular trend, her treatment
of male homosexuality was extremely menacing to society at large. The
"pansy craze" had made gay entertainers the vogue in some circles, but their
forums, in general, were speakeasies, drag balls, and underground clubs.
Gay performers hardly enjoyed widespread acceptance; even the upscale
Manhattan nightclubs where they performed catered to a select world-
weary audience. On the other hand, West's purpose was radical; she in-
tended to bring her depiction of male homosexuality and drag queens into
New York City's great theater culture. The legitimate stage had struggled to
J o O O OO
gain respectability and to rise to the status of high art. The Drag threatened to
bring all that hard work tumbling down.36
Although The Drag was the product of a straight woman's imagination,
West's attempts at genuineness made it all too real. Some have pointed out
that her shrill drag queens, mentally unbalanced spurned lovers, and deceit-
fully closeted homosexual men conveyed homophobic messages. Yet, as
Chauncey notes, in The Drag, for the first time, gay men played gay men. Ad-
ditionally, the Greenwich Villagers, through their ad-libs, became The Drag's
collaborative authors. In fact, West had recruited two drag community lead-
ers, known as the Duchess and Mother Superior. The Duchess tutored
young drag queens on in-group customs of language, dress, and deportment
and, along with Mother Superior, provided support and advice to new mem-
bers. Both were recognized activists, frequently writing the dailies to protest
discrimination against gays. Clearly, their presence must have affected the
content of The Drag.
Yet, like West's other plays, The Drag offered mixed messages. Reviewers
criticized the labored debate over homosexuality between Dr. Richardson
and Judge Kingsbury, insisting that it was a "phony" device used to give the
production a thin veneer of respectability. While West may have used it to
excuse her more bawdy intentions, it also complicated the piece, offering
multiple perspectives. On the one side is Dr. Richardson, who voices an
Ulrich-based position that West considered enlightened. On the other is the
vehemently anti-gay Judge Kingsbury, whose opinions reflect the homopho-
bia of society's moralists and lawmakers.37
If the debate seemed contrived, perhaps it reflected West's internal con-
flicts over both men and sexuality. When questioned later about her sexual-
ity, she claimed that she would have "recoiled in horror" to discover
homosexual leanings in herself. She insisted that she spurned friendships
with lesbian women because she found them "rather morbid." (It was not
true, for she befriended several lesbian and bisexual women.) "I am all
woman," she insisted emphatically in 1970, but, in the same interview, she
also argued that everyone manifested elements of masculinity and feminin-
ity. The Drag was equally ambiguous, pro-gay in some moments and homo-
phobic in others. West was aware of the internal inconsistencies. When
discussing The Drag, she explained, "I had presented no solution. . . . One
could come, see, and make up one's own mind."38
Despite its ambiguities, The Drag furthered West's experimentation with
signification. She discovered a compatible tradition in the comedic verbal
play of drag performers. As an act of rebellion and to promote group soli-
darity, the gay community evolved complex and separate linguistic practices
that relied intensely on double meanings. As a result, double entendre dom-
inated drag humor, popularly referred to as "camp." But for homosexual
men, camp went beyond outlandish humor and drag's exaggerated notions
of femininity, providing commentary on oppression and gay experiences.
Still, West defined camp as "the kind of comedy where they imitate me. . . .
Camp is bein' funny and dishy and outrageous and sayin' clever things."39 Al-
though she always claimed ascendancy, she found comradeship in the camp-
ing of the drag queens. Their comedic stylings made a satisfying compliment
to her signification on American society.
The drag queens' presence also supported West's challenges to rigid gender
roles. The Drag explored an issue very close to Mae, that of identity. The Drag
castigates those who deny their true identities and celebrates those who fully
embrace them. Roily emerges as a deplorable character similar to Clara Stan-
ton of SEX- ' he is a dishonest and selfish thrill seeker, willing
7
O
to sacrifice others
to protect his reputation. Identity, or false identity, was a theme that domi-
nated both SEX and The Hussy, and it continued in The Drag. It reflected a per-
sonal issue for West, one of her "secret doors." Ironically, she had built a career
based on the assumption of false identities. But The Drag, like SEX, revealed her
disgust with such masquerades and with a society that demanded them.
The Drag and SEX appear drastically different, but in many ways they are
companion pieces. Margy's brazenness parallels that of The Drag's cross-
dressers. Like Margy, the drag queens sing the blues and perform to jazz.
Margy Lament shares an even closer kinship with Clem, the Duchess, Win-
nie, and Hell's Kitchen Kate. Like SEX, The Drag signified on men and their
power in society. West linked the oppression of women, especially the poor,
with that of ogayJ
men,' seeing
o
both as victims of male domination.
To those in power in New York during the i 9205, The Drag proved far
more alarming than SEX. The Drag interrogated social norms that directed
straight men to be strong, competitive, and emotionless. Male heterosexual
88 * MAE * WEST
identity rested on men's distinctiveness from women. But The Drag rejected
what producer de Lignemare described as "the decency of manhood." The
drag queens completely undermined the "cult of masculinity" by their desire
not to be distinctive from women but rather to be like them.
lust as threateningo were West's allegations
J
o
regarding
o
a powerful male het-
o i
erosexual institution, the New York City Police Department. Well known for
brutality toward the gay community, for years the NYPD had raided gay hang-
outs, in particular Central Park, arresting gay men and cross-dressers and of-
ten subjecting them to brutal beatings. During the 19 2os, authorities, aided by
new state laws, stepped up persecution of homosexual men. In a sense, Man-
hattan became a site for battles between rigid notions of straight masculinity
and a more flexible conception of gender and, specifically, maleness.
The Drag embroiled Mae West in this clash. The NYPD had been monitor-
ing The Drag, and James Sinnott's appearance at its Bridgeport premiere con-
firmed that authorities were concerned. What Sinnott witnessed could not
have made the NYPD happy. The Drag's cross-dressers discuss police raids as if
they were parties, effusing desire for men in uniform. Significantly, implying
that the attraction went both ways, the Duchess declares, "Say, the cops, they
like me. They all know me from Central Park." West took another shot by
staging a fight between drag queens arrested at Roily's party over who would
be first into the paddy wagon. One exclaims that at a previous raid he/she
"had a gay time." West certainly intimated that gays had infiltrated the justice
system: Roily promises to protect his gay friend using his father's connec-
tions. In defending The Drag in 1929, West asserted that "many of our famous
lawyers, doctors, bankers, and judges are homo-sexualists."40
No doubt such allegations angered New York authorities and fired up
their opposition to West's work. Even before The Drag's Bridgeport pre-
miere, the police began harassing her by threatening to shut down the ever
popular SEX. Despite Variety's warning that bringing The Drag to New York
"would be a calamity, just at this time when, more than ever before, the sub-
ject of a Broadway play censor is under national agitation," West remained
determined. On February 8, she invited city officials and several respected
physicians to a private midnight performance of The Drag at Daly's. Con-
tending that The Drag served educational purposes, she believed that an en-
dorsement from the medical community would allow her to ease the
production back into the city.41
The next evening, just as SEX's performance was getting underway, James
S. Bolan of the district attorney's office arrived at Daly's with ten officers.
Across town, the same scene was being repeated at The Captive and The Virgin
Man. As rumors of the raids spread, crowds lined up outside Daly's with
newspaper reporters and photographers poised to catch the action. The au-
dience filed out and joined the mob. Inside, at the play's end, Bolan an-
nounced that West, Timony, Morganstern, and seventeen of the cast and
crew were under arrest. Mae retired to her dressingO room, removed her 7
makeup, changed her gown, and then, reemerging, announced that she was
ready to go.
As officers led Mae West and her comrades out of Daly's, cheers went up
from the throng, o 7 which now numbered over one thousand. Arriving o at the
night court, she was welcomed by another group of onlookers and re-
porters. Inside, a judge was prepared to quickly arraign West and her en-
tourage. Sitting on the bench with the judge was Acting Mayor Joseph V.
McKee, who had ordered the raids in the absence of the vacationing Mayor
Walker. (The mayor was conveniently in Havana with other Tammany heavy-
weights.) McKee claimed he had only acted after receiving approval by
phone from Walker, but West blamed the raid on the acting mayor anyway,
accusing him of succumbing to pressure from John Sumner. However, Mc-
Kee also had other motivations. An ally of Bronx political boss Edward
Flynn, who had grand political aspirations, McKee often undermined the
mayor when possible. Mae would always refer to McKee as "Holy Joe."42
Early in the morning of February 10, the court charged SEX's defendants
with staging an indecent performance, maintaining a public nuisance, and
"corrupting the morals of youth and others." Timony represented the group
and immediately bailed everyone out. As they departed, McKee warned
that if they attempted another performance of SEX, the police would arrest
them again. Jim Timony boasted that they not only intended to continue
with SEX but were also "seriously considering hiring Madison Square Gar-
den for The Drag."
The following morning, Timony obtained an injunction that prevented
the authorities from interfering further with SEX. That night, publicity sur-
rounding the arrest brought record crowds out to Daly's. The next day, Ban-
ton proclaimed to the media that nothing would stop him from prosecuting
everyone arrested in the February 9 raids. Walker announced that he would
"expect the police commissioner to investigate any show that he hears of if
told it's objectionable, and . . . make arrests if it appears the show violates
the law." Tammany was selling Mae West out. In an interview with the New
York Times on the night of his arrest, Morganstern sputtered, "What is re-
sponsible for tonight's action? The answer is politics."43
As the leaders of the New York stage feared, the raids opened a Pandora's
box. Calls for censorship and demands to clean up public amusements swept
the nation. Movie censor Will Hays received more complaints regarding in-
9o * MAE * WEST TR
decency in films. Around the country, lawmakers introduced censorship leg-

islation. In New York, a Republican assemblyman proposed a bill mandating
a stage censor, exactly the type of legislation Al Smith dreaded. Back in the
city, theater managers, owners, and playwrights continued to meet, heart-
ened only slightly by Jimmy Walker's pronouncement that "a good loud blast
of a police whistle" was just as effective as censorship laws.44
Police action against SEX had been more in opposition to The Drag than to
Margy Lament's lascivious adventures. While efforts to mothball The Drag
succeeded, SEX played to capacity crowds for several more weeks. However,
by the beginning of March, attendance died off and profits shrank. Desperate
to keep the production alive, the Morals Production Corporation ordered a
2£ percent pay cut for everyone. Several players handed in their notices. Fi-
nally, on Saturday, March 19, after the evening's performance, Morganstern
announced that West was physically exhausted and was closing the play. Yet
he also emphasized her determination to fight the case to its end.
Only a few days later, the New York state senate passed the Wales Pad-
lock Bill, which required the district attorney to prosecute everyone associ-
ated with an indecent production and to lock down for one year any theater
that hosted such shows. It was less severe than mandatingo a stage o
censor and
allowed the power over Broadway to remain with the district attorney, who
in New York City was the Tammany Hall loyalist Banton. The bill now sat
waiting on Al Smith's desk.45
Shortly afterward, on March 28, 1927, the defendants from SEX came to
trial. The courtroom was packed, and the streets outside were jammed with
fans and onlookers. To represent her and her co-defendants, West hired a
team of four lawyers—two connected with Owney Madden—headed by
Herman Rosenthal's former associate Harold Spielberg.r o The ensuing o trial
came off almost like one of Mae's comedy-dramas. As "People's Exhibit A"
the prosecution, led by Deputy District Attorney James Wallace, entered
the play itself. Next, Wallace called a series of witnesses who he claimed
could verify the immoral nature of SEX. Backer Harry Cohen testified that
he complained about the play's lewdness; he was particularly offended, he
said, by its strong language and the star's "kootchie." He claimed West dis-
missed his concerns,' insistingo it would ogenerate "box office." She maintained
that audiences demanded licentiousness,' tellingohim,' "I'll ogive it to them."46
The highlight of the prosecution's case rested on the testimony of
Sergeant Patrick Keneally, who had attended three performances of SEX,
taking voluminous notes. An Irish immigrant with a thick brogue, Keneally
repeated what prosecutors identified as the play's most salacious lines. He
also described what he considered to be SEX's more "indecent" moments,
which included Margy's "prolonged" kisses and what he characterized as a
S P E A K I N G OF THE I N F L U E N C E OF THE JOOK 9!
"muscle dance." Not surprisingly, much of the prosecution's testimony fo-

cused on West's shimmy, the officer testifying that "Miss West moved her
navel up and down and from right to left." On cross-examination, defense at-
torney Norman P. S. Schloss compelled him to admit that he could not swear
he saw her navel, but he still emphatically insisted that there "was something
in her middle that moved from east to west." When Schloss challenged Ke- O
neally to demonstrate the dance, Wallace objected, sneering that "everyone

in the police force is not a dancer."
Wallace repeatedly emphasized that it was not SEX's dialogue alone that
made it objectionable. Rather, Mae West's movements and delivery made it
so indecent. As West recalled, he contended, "Miss West's personality, looks,
walk,' mannerisms and gestures to suggestive."47
made the lines and situationstoto
West's defense quickly ran into obstacles. The judge, George Donnellan,
blocked their attempts to introduce testimony from SEX's play jury, so Schloss
called the production's stage manager. He challenged Keneally's testimony,
contendingO that contact between Margy OJ
and her suitors was "mere touches"
and that heavy theatrical makeup prevented any lengthy kissing. Another wit-
ness, Harry S. Geiss, a nightwear manufacturer, testified that he had seen SEX
twice and found nothing indecent about it at all. Under cross-examination,
however,' he admitted that he was a close friend of Morganstern's
to
and had been
recruited to give positive testimony. Winifred Noy, a screenwriter who had
seen SEX, was more help, insisting that West's much debated dance was an "or-
dinary jazz shimmy" commonly performed in stage shows around the nation.
During testimony, Schloss stridently interjected that SEX was a morality play
that educated the public on the "horror and disgust of harlotry."48
After a week of testimony, the case came to a dramatic end. Wallace vig-
orously implored the jury to rid the stage of immoral productions. He de-
cried SEX as a slumming totour. "We have cleaned up r the red light
to district of
New York. It's a pretty clean town," he stated. "But we've got red lights on
the stage." For the defense, Harold Spielberg began with recitations from the
Bible and Shakespeare,
r ' arguing
t o t that,
o ' taken out of context,' these
t great works
o
could also be considered obscene. He conceded that SEX was not a literary
masterpiece; it contained dialogue that was "cheap,""tawdry," and "in bad
taste." But he also insisted that SEX should not be judged by single lines. He
pointed out that it had run for almost a year without any interference but
that when "a sacrifice was needed . . . the police picked SEX." With that, the
court was recessed and the jury began deliberations.49
After deliberating for several hours, the jury voted nine to three to acquit
the defendants. Then, after receiving additional instructions from the judge,
who ruled that if any portion of a play was obscene, the entire play must be
considered obscene, they returned to the jury room. At that point, it started
9 2 A E * W E S T *
to look grim for West and her colleagues. Making the most of it, Timony re-
treated to a corner of the courtroom and began praying the rosary. West's
leading man, Barrie O'Neill, who had appeared chipper throughout the
trial, looked crestfallen. West, the pillar of strength, reassured him. "Don't
worry, Barrie," reporters overheard her say, "it'll come out all right."
It didn't. On April £, the jury returned with a guilty verdict. Barrie O'Neill
and another actor burst into tears. Mae's whispered words of consolation to
her leading man did little to help; O'Neill shuddered and "bit his handkerchief
for several minutes." Timony and Morganstern left silently dejected, refusing
to speak to journalists. But West's spirit was energized. Lashing out at Wal-
lace, she told reporters, "Anybody who needs a dirty play ought to call on him
for suggestions."
oo
She declared her determination to fighto
the conviction all the
way to the Supreme Court, contending that SEX was "a work of art." As she
left the courtroom, friends and well-wishers who lined the corridor cheered
her. "You've got to fight in this world," Battling Jack's daughter told a reporter.
"You got to fight to get there and fight to stay there."50
As Mae West and her comrades awaited sentencing, o7 members of the en-
tertainment community, confident that SEX's "sacrifice" had put to rest the
censorship drive, did virtually nothing to lobby against the pending Wales
Padlock legislation. To their surprise, Smith, feeling the pressure to act
against
to the indecencies of the New York stage,o ' fearing
o more strident censor-
ship, and thinking of his presidential aspirations, signed it into law.
On April 19, the day of West's sentencing, a mob of fans, spectators, and
reporters crammed into the courtroom. As she had each day throughout the
trial, Mae appeared fashionably attired, looking relaxed. Judge Donnellan
was less composed. He announced suspended sentences for all involved ex-
cept West, Timony, and Morganstern. Denouncing SEX as "obscene, im-
moral, and indecent," he contended that stiff penalties for the principal
defendants would not only banish unseemly productions from the stage but
also help rehabilitate the sullied reputation of "the most moral city in the
universe," New York City. Acting against SEX protected the community
from threats to its moral fiber, especially sheltering susceptible youth who
could be permanently damaged by such licentiousness. He placed most of
the blame on Mae West,7 who he claimed "seemed to go o
to extremes in order
to make the play as obscene and immoral as possible." With that he fined her
and Timony $ôo each and sentenced them along with Morganstern to ten
days in jail. Variety's, courtroom observer reported that Mae, "assuming] the
hard-boiled manner she played in the play, did not wink an eyelid when the
sentence was pronounced." As a police officer led her away she told re-
porters, "I expect it will be the making of me."51
* FF* IK* V * E 8
You Can Be Had
I've met your goody, goody kind before. Why don't you come
up sometime? You needn't be afraid, I won't tell—Oh, you
can be had!
— Mae West, DiamondLil, 1928
hile Mae West's underworld connections failed to keep her
W out of jail, they did ease her incarceration. After a night in

the bleak Jefferson Market Women's Prison, she was trans-
ferred to Welfare Island's penitentiary, where the warden,
Harry O. Schleth, was known for his generous treatment of "well-connected"
prisoners. Although she was strip-searched and issued the standard prison
uniform of coarse cotton stockings, cotton underwear, oversize slippers, and
blue-checked dress, Schleth assigned her a private room in the administra-
tion building and "light housekeeping"—making beds, sweeping, and dust-
ing books in the prison's tiny library. She later lunched with him in his home,
a privilege accorded to celebrity prisoners. She protested her prison attire,
and he arranged for her to purchase new stockings from the commissary.
When reporters confronted Schleth about West's preferential treatment, he
responded that he viewed her the same as other inmates but had to protect
her from the island's "hardened offenders."
West remembered mingling liberally with the other female prisoners and
claimed that as she passed cell blocks with a matron, prisoners applauded
her, shouting, "Hello, Mae," and "Glad to see you!" She received an equally
warm welcome from women in the venereal and narcotic wards, where the
inmates had requested to meet her, but she recalled that at the infirmary
there "were not happy thoughts or sights." This experience returned her to
reality, reminding her of the destructiveness of poverty, discrimination, and
sexual exploitation of women. During her incarceration, West came to
know several female inmates fairly well. She even summoned her attorneys
93
94 M A E * W E S T
to represent one, a young mother awaiting trial for petty larceny. West sup-
ported the woman's children until their mother was freed.1
Imprisonment generated more publicity for Mae West as dailies chroni-
cled each detail of her stay. The New York Times noted she was transported in
a common paddy wagon with "five fellow prisoners, two of them negroes,"
which in the era's segregationist
o o
view affirmed her degraded
o
state. Re-
porters also gave considerable attention to her rumored dissatisfaction with
the prison's "fuzzy" underwear, one claiming she composed a poem dedi-
cated to the warden about it. Her stay excited so much attention that Liberty
magazine, nationally circulated, engaged West to write an article on her im-
prisonment.2
After she had served eight of her ten days, Warden Schleth released Mae
for good behavior. On the day of her discharge, Tillie, Beverly, Bea Jackson,
and a flock of reporters showed up to escort her home. As she departed
Welfare Island, photographers snapped pictures of her bidding farewell to
the prison's staff. One shot showed Schleth shaking Mae's hand; he told re-
porters that she was "a fine woman—a great character." He had reason to
praise her, for she had donated her $ i ,000 advance from Liberty to build a
better prison library.
West's article, "Ten Days and Five Hundred Dollars: The Experiences of a
Broadway Star in Jail," offered an account both of her imprisonment and of
her "experiencing" that "experience." Throughout, she subtly challenged
society's assumptions about race, class, and gender. The piece began with
the moment she was led from the courtroom and delivered into the hands
of "Mrs. Campbell." An officer of the court, Campbell was an African-
American woman, whom Mae praised as especially knowledgeable. Soon
Mae found herself sharingo the holdingo room with three white women and
two black women. While she was sympathetic to all, her depiction of the
black women was decidedly more positive. She described the whites as
worn, scarred, and emaciated but claimed the African Americans exhibited
resiliency. One possessed a great comedic sensibility, like Mae's, similar to
Bert Williams's. Another, despite her addiction to drugs, was reportedly
youthful and fit.
West's preoccupation with African-American female prisoners continued
throughout the article. At the warden's residence, she encountered three
black women and three white women assigned to housekeeping duties. Only
one of the white women, an expert shoplifter, received any specific men-
tion. In contrast, she reported details on all of the African-American
women. She found the warden's cook "very likeable" with "wonderful flash-
in?o black eves."
J
The laundress was a recoveringo drugo addict with a reserved
YOU CAN BE HAD 95
demeanor. West's favorite was Lulu, a "stick-up" woman. "I liked Lulu very
much," she wrote, "for it requires a lot of nerve to 'stick-up' a man."3
West's commentary on prison life revealed her ongoing identification
with African Americans, in particular black women. She had only pity for
white female inmates, with the exception of the crafty shoplifter. On the
other hand, she celebrated the black women for qualities she respected, and
projected, as integral parts of her own identity. These women were funny;
they were beautiful. This acknowledgment of the beauty of African-Ameri-
can women was a radical attack on the dominant culture's obsession with
WASPish femininity. Additionally, African-American women were bold and
courageous as well as physically and emotionally strong. White women were
weak, a trait she despised. Although Mae's article reaffirmed some elements
of racism, ultimately she used it to invert racial hierarchy. Black women be-
came superior to their white counterparts.
More overtly, West's article criticized society's treatment of women of all
races, especially the poor, and faulted the criminal justice system. She
stressed that most female criminal offenders had two common experiences:
poverty and exploitation. She was adamant that prisons exacerbated rather
than remedied their plight. Released from jail penniless, homeless, and job-
less, these women had to "go back to the old life to keep body and soul to-
gether. . . . These girls are willing to work but how can they when the law is
O O O J
always ready to pounce upon them and send them back to the Workhouse?"
A believer in hard work and independence, Mae advocated job training and
work relief, contending that female inmates, most incarcerated for prostitu-
tion and drugs, only resorted to crime out of economic necessity. Upon de-
parting Welfare Island, she announced her intention to help some of the
prisoners find work once they were freed. Indeed, almost ten years later she
was still providing assistance to Welfare Island acquaintances.4
After her release, Mae had to find something to top SEX. Her incarceration
had proved inspirational. She claimed that on the way to Welfare Island she
had been moved to compose an expose on corruption—in beauty pageants.
Roughed out in the summer of 1927, The Wicked Age, as she called it, began
rehearsals in September. Again, to cut costs, she hired obscure players, among
them her mentor Hal Clarendon and a crusty veteran of stock and vaudeville,
Marjorie Main, who later became moviedom's famous Ma Kettle. West
sought financing from familiar sources, including Timony and, of course,
Owney Madden. She needed it, for over the next two months she drove the
production deep into debt with long rehearsals and extensive rewrites.5
The Wicked Age's main character, Babe Carson of Bridgetown, New Jersey,
was West's study of young, rebellious flapperdom. Babe enjoys roadhouses
96 M A E * W E ST
(especially "The Blue Goose," named for Tillie's establishment), bootleg

liquor, and petting parties. Despite opposition from her stern uncle and
guardian, Robert Carson, she enters and wins a local beauty pageant, which
was supposed to be fixed for her rival. But victory is bittersweet. Her best
friend, Gloria, is murdered and another pal, Willie, stands accused of the
crime. Only Babe's intervention saves him from an angry lynch mob.
Babe's title as Bridgetown's beauty queen catapults her to fame and for-
tune, transforming her into a vain and cocaine-addicted star. She unleashes
7
O
temper tantrums on everyone, except French count Gene De Monte, who

woos her with "I kiss your hand right now Mademoiselle and later I kiss you
some more." She replies, "Fifty million French men can't be wrong." But the
count, who has promised her Atlantic City's Miss America crown, grows
jealous of Babe's many male admirers. He attacks her and reveals he is Glo-
ria's murderer. In the end, a hometown boy saves Babe and she accepts his
marriage proposal.6
Opening night, November 4, did not go well. Just hours before curtain,
Actors' Equity, responding to a complaint from West's leading man, de-
manded she expand his part, which she had cut after his dissatisfying tryout
performances. Additionally, the scenery, delivered only the previous day, was
too large to fit through the stage door and, left outside, had been soaked by an
overnight rainstorm. Working feverishly, the crew sawed it in half and re-
assembled and repainted it onstage. When the curtain rose, almost an hour
late, the house was full. But most of the major critics were absent, and those
second-stringers in attendance panned The Wicked Age. One declared it "a vul-
gar presentation of practically nothing at all. It is so empty that it is almost a
vacuum." The New York Times branded it "the low point of the theatrical season
of 1927—28," and Variety decried West's latest as "a choice piece of limburger."
Percy Hammond, who had applauded Margy Lamont, now pronounced West
"the worst actress in the world," a remark that compelled him to fret for his
safety for several weeks. Regardless, Variety predicted that The Wicked Age's
salaciousness and West's naughty reputation would make it a success.7
Variety was wrong. The first week's take was disappointingly low. The
next week, West missed Monday night's performance, claiming severe indi-
gestion. Her absence coincided with her inability to pay the company's
salaries. The next morning, with everyone paid, the play resumed, but at-
tendance continued to plunge, and the show closed on November 21. Al-
though West vowed to reopen with a new leading man and new backers, all
attempts to resurrect the troubled production failed.
The Wicked Age's problems were far more critical than a difficult leading
man and shaky finances. Its greatest weaknesses rested in the new role West
YOU CAN BE HAD 97
had created for herself. With Margy Lament, she had carved out a character
with a reputation as a hard-boiled woman of the streets. Babe Carson hardly
had Margy's panache. The beauty queen represented a safe woman, a charac-
ter who reinforced female stereotypes. Babe lacked Margy's rage and self-
awareness; taking her beauty seriously and becoming unwittingly complicit
in her own exploitation, she succumbed to drink, drugs, her ego, and a con-
ventional marriage. In part, The Wicked Age flopped because West stepped
back from her evolving stage persona and well-crafted rebellious techniques.
Babe lacked a double voice, and audiences were downright disappointed.
West was still attempting a social critique but with a new method, reposi-
tioning much of her rebelliousness within lengthy debates between the play's
male characters. She funneled the rest through the bathing beauty contest,
dismissed sarcastically by the New York Times as her "pressing sociological
matter"; she used it to interrogate women's exploitation, censorship, and
even corruption.8
In The Wicked Age, Bridgetown's leaders are crooked and money hungry.
Willing to do anything to drive up land values, they conspire to force a
beauty contest on their reluctant community (a common real estate gim-
mick in the 1920$). Babe's uncle, Robert Carson, protests that their scheme
only degrades women, placing them "on exhibition like prize cattle." But he
is no match for greedy land speculators, one contending, "The basis of any
industry . . . for success today is based on the exploitation of the female
form." Another links this to the theater's state: "Which plays get over and
make money for their producers? Those that try to uplift the public and
teach it bigger
oo
and better ways J
of living—don't
o
make me laugh—those
o
plays go over that exhibit the woman's body in some way or another." West
literally and figuratively laid it bare: Society's wealth was built on the corn-
modification of women. Those men in The Wicked Age's audience who had
come to catch an eyeful of the voluptuous West in a bathing suit left disap-
pointed, however. The beauty pageant scene was staged behind the wall of a
tent, with the play's characters watching through a hole in the canvas. "Three
cheers for Babe,"the invisible crowd chants inside.9
Despite its flaws, The Wicked Age did mark an important stage in the evolu-
tion of a black presence in West's work. In this play, her interpretation of
blackness materialized as distinct characters—Babe's maid and some jazz
musicians who, in an almost symbolic gesture, present her with a song they
have composed for her. Significantly, there was a twoness to these charac-
ters. On one level, they reinforce Babe's whiteness; she derides them and
clearly views herself as superior. (Her maid misuses language, a common
racial stereotype.) But they equally undermine her whiteness. Babe sings and
98 * MAE * WEST
shimmies to jazz, plays a "mean blues" harmonica, and performs several

numbers with the African-American band. She also shares a closeness with
her maid, seeking her advice on love. These images represent West's earliest
attempt at introducing and establishing a relationship with black characters
in her plays. In particular, Babe's maid was a departure from traditional por-
trayals. Black maids onstage were almost always silent, one-dimensional
symbols of class and white privilege. Babe's maid not only spoke but enjoyed
a life outside of her service to the white woman.
While The Wicked Age proved disappointing, West remained resilient. In
the fall of 1927, she moved into the Harding Hotel and began a search for a
J J
' O O
new vehicle, interviewing several writers and producers. One of them was
another victim of John Sumner, Samuel Roth, an author and bookseller who
had also been imprisoned on Welfare Island. In a meeting at the Harding, he
pitched several possibilities for plays, including one based on the life of
Nancy Hanks, Abraham Lincoln's mother. West "sweetly" rejected the idea,
telling Roth, "Don't you see, for the public I am a bad woman, and a bad
woman I will have to remain: They just see me bad and imagine me worse. I
can never be bad enough to please my dear public."10 As painful as it was, The
Wicked Age had been a good lesson. Mae had hit on a successful formula with
SEX and had learned to stick to her original
o style.
j
Shortly afterward, West discovered a more intriguing prospect in a gay
nineties Bowery script written by a vaudevillian, Mark Linder. He presented
it to her in the office of his brother, Jack Linder, a vaudeville talent agent.
She arrived for the appointment bedecked in $20,000 in diamonds, refused
to read the script, and, after listening to Mark recite it out loud, announced
that she too had been working on a play set in the Bowery of the i 8908.
However, she mused, she might rework Mark's piece. Jack Linder, an aspir-
ing producer, eagerly agreed.
It is possible that both Mark Linder and Mae West simultaneously stum-
bled onto a Bowery concept, for it was hardly an innovative idea. By the mid-
twenties, the country was in the midst of a gay-nineties revival. Several
turn-of-the-century productions enjoyed new runs on Broadway. Books
about the period sold well. Images of the 18903 appeared throughout Ameri-
can culture. A growing nostalgia for this seemingly simpler time swept the
nation. Certainly it was true for Tillie, who regarded the nineties with fond-
ness; it was the era of Lillian Russell, when stylish women wore elaborate pic-
ture hats and gowns. She urged Mae to forge ahead with the Bowery project.
Mae also insisted that a serendipitous event propelled her along. One
night
fe the Harding's
O front-desk night
O manager,
O ' admiring
O Mae's diamonds,' bC-
gan to reminiscence about his younger days in the Bowery, where he had
YOU CAN BE HAD 99
been a police officer. He told Mae of his sweetheart, famous throughout the
neighborhood as Diamond Lil. Reportedly, she had stolen not only his heart
but that of almost every man of the Bowery. Mae followed him up to his
room, where they rummaged through old photographs, newspaper clip-
pings, and keepsakes as he told Lil's story. A hardened woman, she valued
only diamonds provided by smitten suitors. Without remorse, she betrayed
her lovers, broke up marriages, and even murdered a woman. A local politi-
cal boss supported her, and she lived in elegance above his beer hall. Yes, the
night manager's story was true. There really was a Diamond Lil. Others re-
membered her well, for her shrewdness and cold charm as well as for the
sparkling diamond inset in one of her front teeth.
West found herself drawn to this "Queen of the Bowery." She admired
Lil's strength, power, and cunning. Mae went into seclusion, probably with
Timony's coercion, and worked steadily for a week, producing a new play
that she christened Diamond Lil. Although she disliked the Linders, Timony
knew they had money and convinced her to accept Jack as her producer and
split the script's royalties evenly with Mark. She also cast Mark in the play
and hired his friend Robert Sterling as company manager. Mae pawned some
of her jewels and, with additional funds provided by Timony and Madden,
purchased half of the show's stock. The rest was divided among Texas and
Tommy Guinan, Jack Linder, Robert Sterling, and three other investors, all
close associates of the Linders.11
During rehearsals, West reshaped the story and script. Before long, she
dominated the entire production, vetoing all of the Linders' suggestions and
driving out the director. She oversaw each detail, including music and cos-
tuming. Seeking authenticity, she recruited players, many nonprofessionals,
who could bring a genuine Bowery atmosphere to the show. One recalled,
"She didn't want actors to play the part of bums. She hired real bums. All
sorts of them, flat-nosed, punch drunk prizefighters, genuine homosexuals,
real alcoholics." For inspiration for her leading man, West took a drive
through the Bowery, where she spotted a handsome young Salvation Army
officer standing outside of a mission. "He walked out this door, right to the
gutter at the end of the sidewalk," she remembered. "I said 'Uhmmmm,
ahhhh, ohhh' and I suddenly felt like drivin' round the block again to take an-
other look." That was enough o
for Mae. Diamond Lil's leadingo
man became
Captain Cummings, a Bowery missionary, similar to the Salvation Army offi-
cer she vamped as Shifty Liz in The Mimic World.12
In early April 1928, West was ready to break in the play. To save money,
Timony secured Teller's Shubert Theater in Brooklyn for Easter week. It
was cheap and considered risky because so many New Yorkers abstained
100 * MAE * WEST
from theater during Holy Week. But Mae's hometown stuck by her; Brook-
lynites turned out in droves. Variety reported the take was exceptional.
Many anxious Manhattanites trekked to Brooklyn to view West's latest
creation. Among them were writer Gilbert Seldes and the New York Evening
Tribune's popular columnist Robert Garland. Seldes found the show wanting,
complaining that Mae, "unenergetic as ever, movfed] sullenly about the stage
as if it pained her, forgetting her lines, dropping out of character and into it
again as if it doesn't matter (and it doesn't)." Conversely, Garland praised Di-
amond Lil: "From now on, I'm willing—anxious, even—to pay money to
enjoy her. From now on, I intend to applaud her from the top lines of my
column and the front rows of theaters in which she happens, by the grace of
God and the laxity of the Police Department, to be playing."13
For Manhattan, Timony secured the Royale Theater, a small venue seat-
ing just over a thousand people. Although the Royale had never hosted a hit,
when Diamond Lil opened on April 9, the house was bursting at the seams.
Glowinges praise
r like Garland's combined with smart advertisingo underscor-
ingo Diamond Lil's underworld tone brought o
New Yorkers out en masse. For
the remainder of the theatrical season, they packed the Royale.
Diamond Lil sent audiences back to the Bowery of the 18908. It was set in
Suicide Hall, a saloon named for its popularity among women desperate to
take their lives. Its owner, Bowery boss and Tammanyite Gus Jordon, also
runs a white slave ring with two Brazilian accomplices, Rita Christinia and
her paramour, the handsome toreador Pablo Juarez. Although Jordon is un-
aware of it, a rival politician, Dan Flynn, is conspiring to unseat him by ex-
posing his illegal activities. Jordon, awaiting the arrival of Diamond Lil, who
is his lover and the saloon's star entertainer, joins Flynn, Rita Christinia, and
Juarez in the barroom. The doors part and, amid cheers from both inside
and outside Suicide Hall, Lil enters. Juarez rushes to kiss her hand. "Pablo is
my assistant," avers Rita. Lil asks, "Day or night work, Rita?"14
In the meantime, a suicidal waif, Sally, comes in. Gus recruits Lil, who is ig-
norant of his prostitution scheme, to help Sally and place her in Rita's hands.
Lil quickly sizes up Sally. "You probably left the old folks on the farm flat for
some city slicker who done you wrong," she surmises. She immediately senses
that Sally is pregnant and unmarried. "How—how did you know?" Sally asks.
"Why you poor fool," Lil responds, "it stands out all over you. Well, what of it?
It's being done every day." She convinces Sally to go to Rio with Rita; she can
have her baby there and return without anyone ever knowing. "Listen kid,
don't be fool enough to throw your life away for any man; it flatters them too
much," Lil advises. "Men are all alike, married or single. It's the same game—
their game. I happen to be wise enough to play it their own way."
YOU CAN BE HAD 101
In the meantime, the Salvation Army's Captain Cummings wanders into

the saloon. Although o
Lil is drawn to him,' she scoffs at his soul-savin?;
o'
she
plans to enjoy herself and suffer her fate in hell. She beckons the straitlaced
missionary to join her: "Say why don't you drop in and see me sometime?
Home every evening you know." He declines but invites her to worship ser-
vices. Lil responds, "Oh—you can be had."15
Later Lil lounges in her lavish but gaudy room, replete with copies of the
era's most notorious tabloid, the Police Gazette, and an enormous gold swan-
* O
shaped bed. She has learned from a shoplifting friend that the Salvation Army,
behind on its rent on the mission, is facing eviction. She arranges to purchase
the mission building secretly and have the title transferred to Cummings.
Shortly afterward, Cummings comes up to her room. But he wants Sally;
her family is searching for her. Lil remains silent and he pleads, "Somewhere
inside of you there must be a heart." Capitulating, Lil reveals that Sally has
left for Rio and then attempts to seduce the missionary. He fends her off,
stating, "Diamonds always seem cold to me. They have no warmth, no soul."
Lil responds boldly, "Maybe I ain't got no soul." He disagrees. "Yes you have,
but you keep it hidden under a mask." As he departs, she demands a kiss,
which she receives, to her disgust, on the forehead.16
But Lil finds that she has plenty of men to keep her busy. Flynn has his eye
on her and warns her that Jordon is under surveillance by the Hawk, an un-
dercover police detective whose identity is a mystery. Additionally, Chick
Clark, a spurned lover, has escaped from prison and trails her to Suicide
Hall. Learning she has taken up with Jordon, he attacks her but then, over-
come by her allure, falls before her. She shuttles him out just as Jordon en-
ters, accusing her of indiscretions with Juarez. She calms his fears; he leaves,
and Juarez shows up. He presents her with a diamond pin and a fervid kiss.
Rita interrupts them. "So the minute my back is turned I find you making
love to another woman," she bellows. "Well what did you think he'd be do-
ing?" replies Lil coolly. "A boy with a gift like that should be working at it."
Juarez slips out, and Rita confronts Lil, demanding the diamond brooch,
originally a gift to her from the bullfighter. A struggle ensues and Lil acciden-
tally stabs Rita. Lil throws the brooch at the dead woman, shouting, "Here
take the damned thing. It has no soul anyway."17
A trusted admirer of Lil's disposes of Rita's body as Lil rushes to prepare
for her appearance downstairs, where the saloon is packed with her fans. Af-
ter several song-and-dance acts, Lil takes center stage in her "flaming red"
gown for two numbers, "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" and
"Frankie and Johnny." As she concludes, Chick Clark returns. Lil dispatches
Flynn to intercept him, but Clark shoots him dead. The police burst in, and
102 M A E * WEST
leading the raid is Captain Cummings, who turns out to be the Hawk. An-
gered by his deception, Lil brands him "the lowest kind of thief" for "stealing
the confidence of people." She admonishes him:
You making me think I was a lost soul or something; me laying off my dia-
monds one by one, laying off my paint and powder, laying awake nights
thinking I wasn't good enough for you—and you just a common ordinary
cop! God, I'm mad.
But Cummings o
confesses that he loves her and intends to have her to him-
self. As the curtain descends, Diamond Lil murmurs, "I always knew you
could be had!"18
As the curtain fell on opening night, the audience rose to its feet with
cheers and applause. Afterward, celebrities and theater critics crowded
backstage to meet the star, who shrewdly remained in costume and charac-
ter as she received some of New York's Ogreatest luminaries,' including O
columnists Walter Winchell and Heywood Broun. Texas Guinan and her
family joined Tillie, who was always on hand for Mae's opening nights. Later
they all retired to Texas's club for a party in Mae's honor.
Diamond Lil's reviews were mixed. A few critics condemned the play as
poorly written and badly acted. Richard Lockridge rated the cast "inade-
quate" but assured theatergoers that West was "by no means as bad an actress
as a rplaywright."
j o
However,' others recognized
o
that West had a hit on her
hands. The New York Times, never a big fan of her work, praised her play as
"lurid and frequently rousing," noting that it contained a healthy dose of "O
yes—sex. Miss West has a fine and direct way of approaching that subject
that is almost Elizabethan. If you can stay in the theatre you are likely to en-
joy it." Many praised Mae for her authentic re-creation of the rowdy Bowery
of the i 8908. Variety observed that seeing Diamond Lil was "like going slum-
ming thirty years ago." This time, Percy Hammond showered her with acco-
lades. He declared Diamond Lil "one of the 'hits' of the waning season" and
West a "Broadway institution." John Mason Brown, who panned the show,
still concluded that "her Lil is the acme of the hard-boiled and the epitome of
deliberation, but of its kind it is peerless, so vivid and extraordinary, in fact,
that it much more than justifies a visit to the play."19
The public took note. The Royale was packed every night. Before the end
of April, tickets were sold out for eight weeks in advance. Slumming parties
again made West a stop on their late-night prowls. Broadway figures like
David Belasco and Noel Coward showed up. Carl Van Vechten, a white
writer immersed in the Harlem Renaissance, saw Diamond Lil three times.
YOU C A N B E H A D 103
Every night for two hours after the show West, still in character and cos-
tume, welcomed the rich and famous. (Thursday nights the stage bar even
served Madden's real beer.) One writer described her chatting away, "drop-
ping fairly good, though somewhat trite, epigrams peppered with bad gram-
mar and made important because of her drawl and her insinuations." After
meeting West, actress Constance Collier departed the theater squealing in
20
delight,
o 7 "She's so reee-uhl!"
New York's celebrities and artists were not the only ones to fill the seats at
the Royale. At the Brooklyn premiere, a working-class fan proudly testified to
a reviewer that Mae West was "an actress and no fooling." Additionally, Variety
noted the presence of underworld figures, well-known gunmen, and pick-
pockets in the audience. One spectator bet friends "six, two and even that if
some guy drops dead during the show, he'll be buried without his watch."21
As box office receipts soared, however, dissension festered among the
show's investors. West had become more demanding, and, in response, the
Linders became more resistant. Some of the investors lobbied Jack Linder to
replace her, but he refused. West owned the largest chunk of the show, and he
acknowledgedo
that without her,' Diamond Lil would fold. But the brothers also
alleged to the press that West was trying to muscle them out of the show.
Tensions continued to escalate and by midsummer exploded into a public
war between Mae West and the Linder brothers. Early in July, West deleted
Robert Sterling's theme song "Diamond Lil," insisting that his $ i oo per week
royalties were excessive. The Linders retaliated by filing a complaint with
Actors' Equity charging her with "insubordination." The brothers were an-
gered not only by the actress's strong hold over the play but also by her dom-
ination, without their consent, of the show's business affairs. The divide
deepened when Mark Linder asserted that he was Diamond Lil's author. De-
spite Timony's warnings, Mae angrily confronted him in front of a Variety
correspondent:
"Did you write one line of the dialog of Diamond Lil?" asked Mae.
"No, no dialog. I said you rewrote the play," Mark replied.
"Is there a situation in Diamond Lil that was in your play?" shouted Mae.
"Atmosphere and locale, atmosphere and locale," yelled back Mark,
"it's all mine."
"Atmosphere and locale! You can't copyright atmosphere and locale.
There are a number of Bowery sketches with that same atmosphere. I own
the copyright to Diamond Lil and I wrote every line of it. There isn't even
a name in Diamond Lil that was in your play except that of Chick Clark and
I think I'll take that out. . . ," retorted Mae.
104 M A E * W E S T
West eventually credited Mark Linder with "atmosphere and locale," but not
until she had bought
to
out some of the Guinans' shares,' making to
herself Dia-
mond Lil's principal stockholder. Under her total control, the show continued
to rake in money.22
Several factors made Diamond Lil a hit. First, the production was well
funded, liberated from the financial insecurities that had marked West's ear-
liest endeavors. Second, Diamond Lil's script was distinctly sharper than her
past attempts. The dialogue was trimmer, indicating that West had matured
and found better collaborators. Most important, she had perfected both the
Westian character and her performance style. Her years in melodrama, bur-
lesque, vaudeville, and musical comedy had converged with her realization
that she could "create an illusion" and "say almost anything, do almost any-
thing on stage if I smiled and was properly ironic in delivering my dialogue."
Mae had mastered the art of signification:
to Her basic messages
o remained un-
changed, but she now had refined her ability to obscure them. One reviewer
congratulated
to
her for finallyj discovering sheto
could be "vulgar
to
without being
to
brazen." Diamond Lil floated by with no protest from John Sumner.23
That summer West celebrated her thirty-fifth birthday. It had been a long
road, but Diamond Lil represented the culmination of years of crafting her
performance, a synthesis of a variety of cultural forms into one character. In
a sense, Lil was a composite of almost all the trends present in the previous
fifty years of American popular entertainment—a pastiche of a Bowery girl,
Lillian Russell, George M. Cohan, Eva Tanguay, a drag queen, Bert
Williams, a shimmy dancer, and a blues singer, to name a few. The mix that
became Lil was puzzlingly revolutionary. Critics could not decide whether
the play was old-fashioned melodrama or new realism.
In a sense, West had synthesized a female culture heroine. Lil was bigger
than life. Mae padded her costume and added height with impossibly high-
heeled shoes that made her unique shimmying strut, which emanated from
"her head to her hips," even more pronounced. And Lil's old-fashioned
corset was not really so old-fashioned. Mae reshaped it by trimming the top
off a standard corset and wearing toit upside
i down. The result exaggerated
toto her
bust and shoulders over her waist and hips, giving Lil a husky and powerful
look. Her speech and accent augmented the effect. She had perfected a low,
reverberant, nasal working-class drawl. "She talks in a quiet monotone," ob-
served Percy Hammond, "never disturbing her humorous lips with the
noises of elocution."24
Diamond Lil, who was of a bygone era, appeared less threatening and
more lovable than her predecessor, the seemingly hardened Margy Lament.
Unlike Margy, Lil was never actually seen peddling sex, but Diamond Lil con-
YOU CAN BE HAD 105
tinued the saga of Margy Lamont, picking up the scarlet woman after she had
left the streets to become a "legitimate entertainer." Lil could not have existed
O
without Margy. Mae needed SEX to establish the subtext for her characteriza-
tion. It provided a foundation that allowed spectators to decode hidden layers
of Lil's background. Nowhere does the play directly identify Lil as a former
prostitute. The closest Lil comes to the oldest profession is when she com-
pares her fate to that of a biblical "scarlet woman." However, audiences and
critics alike would always interpret Lil as a woman of the streets.25
Although to some have seen Lil as a milder character than Margy, £v' mediated
for mainstream audiences, in many ways she was much "badder" than her
prototype. Both Lil and Margy move from man to man, deriving capital, one
wayJ or another,' from men. Although critics to
hailed Lil's heart of o
gold,' she
commits murder and sets Flynn up to die at the hands of Chick Clark. Lil's
single good deed was to buy the Salvation Army a building. Margy's only real
sin was that poverty forced her to sell her body; she never took a life and
even saved Clara from both an overdose and loss of reputation.
Lil ingrained
to
herself into the mythology
J oJ
of America. Because her emo-
tional life and spiritual
r struggles
totowere so visible,
' audiences found Lil more
endearing than Margy Lamont. Margy goes no further than acknowledging
her anger; she has no spiritual depth. Lil not only achieves self-awareness but
evolves, facing questions that cut to the core of existence and agonizing over
sin and salvation. Diamond Lil becomes a "near-miss" conversion tale, a story
of a woman who has no faith but who gains it in the end—perhaps.
Diamond Lil provided a serious exploration of the split between the secu-
lar and the sacred. No doubt the subject was much on West's mind as she
continued exploring spiritualism. In Diamond Lil, she placed the material and
spiritual into direct conflict. At the onset, Lil represents, literally, the pro-
fane. She warns Cummings that she has "no conscience," that all attempts to
convert her will fail. In the earliest drafts,' she is even moreto
unregenerate,'
mockingtoCummings in front to of Suicide Hall's patrons.
r She snatches his hat
and wears it, shouting, "I ain't afraid of nothin', God, man, or the devil; and
since you come in for this prayer meeting stuff, I'll give you a Hallelujah you
won't forget." In the original, the Bowery belle expresses disdain for religion
and those who preach it. 26
In both versions, Cummings's presence touches off an internal debate for
Diamond Lil. She finds him attractive but unattainable; they are too far sepa-
rated by their differences. "He would only look at me out of curiosity," she
tells a friend. She is especially disturbed by his condemnation of her dia-
monds, which she considers to be the "the most valuable thing a body can
have." While she finds him a challenge and aspires to seduce him, she under-
I O 6 M A E * W E S T
goes an honest crisis in her value system. In the end, Lil rejects materialism.
Rita's death, which results from a fight over a diamond (not a man), rein-
forces the unhappiness and shallowness of the profane—the only thing Lil
believed life had to offer.21
In this light, Diamond Lil establishes its kinship with the trickster tale. Ac-
cording to Henry Louis Gates Jr., a trickster, who is often disguised, trans-
mits sacred intentions, mediating between the secular and spiritual realms.
Lil's attempted seduction of Cummings forces him into a dialogue about re-
ligion. Lil casts in with the devil, but the captain dismisses this as just a mas-
querade. When Lil enters into anguished self-evaluation, however, she is
drawn nearer to the sacred and ends up actually closer than even Cummings,
who is onlyJ 1posingO
as a man of faith. Her outrage
O
when she learns Cummings O
is the Hawk reintroduces West's preoccupation with the denial of identity

while incorporating another twist. In the end, Lil's spirituality may be just
another mask. Delighted that Cummings has succumbed to her charms, Lil
proclaims with worldly confidence that he has been "had," that she has
tricked him and will "have" him.
Lil also revisited West's interest in power and control. In many ways, it
reflected her recent battles. Despite those who insist that Mae had little in-
terest in politics, Diamond Lil was politically charged and had some basis in
reality. Suicide Hall did exist. No doubt many recognized turn-of-the-cen-
tury Bowery boss and Tammany man Big Tim Sullivan in the character of
Gus Jordon. By setting the play in the past and using Jordon to represent
Tammany corruption, West poked fun at the modern-day Democratic ma-
chine that had sold her out.28
Furthermore, it was probably no coincidence that Dan Flynn shared his
surname with Tammany rival Ed Flynn, whose lackey, Acting Mayor "Holy
Joe" McKee, had ordered Mae's arrest. Through Dan Flynn, she derided the
Bronx's Democratic party machine. Lil's dislike for Dan Flynn is abundant;
she expresses deep distrust of him. When Dan Flynn departs for "a date in
the flaming twenties," an area where gays congregated during the 18905, Lil
questions his sexuality. And while Ed Flynn maintained a sterling family-man
reputation, West used Diamond Lil for a homophobic attack on those who
had prevented The Drag from playing New York City. Onstage, Flynn is shot
dead and Lil walks away with the spoils. Rather than being the victim of ma-
nipulating male politicians, through Lil, West dominated the men who in
real life had impeded her work.29
Probably the most widely acknowledged message in Diamond Lil focuses on
gender relations. West's work had long explored such issues, and Lil was the
next logical step in the development of her character and philosophy. She
YOU CAN BE HAD IOJ
claimed that Lil had been developed with women in mind: She had tired of
playing only to men. Motivated probably by both profit and conviction, she
constructed a character with appeal to both women and men. West insisted
that Lil emboldened women. She accomplished this by making Lil stronger but
less embittered than Margy. In the earliest drafts of the play, Lil is a much
harsher figure:
o '
she even tells Jluarez,' "I want to forget
o
ALL men for a few
hours." A disdain for matrimony was apparent; Cummings informs Lil, "I want
you—as a prisoner—but not with bracelets [handcuffs]. My idea is a plain
gold ring." By the final version, Lil's resistance to male authority remains sub-
merged within the play's undercurrents. Lil signifies Margy's anger and bitter-
ness. As a result, Lil is even more dangerous than her brazen prototype.30
Some have argued that Lil, who forcefully rejects male domination, offers
an early feminist role model. Others have disagreed, contending that her fo-
cus on fulfillment through o
men is in line with traditional norms. Indeed,'
while Lil is strong, she does not truly fit a feminist notion of womanhood;
she plays men's games by their rules. However, feminism was an ideology
that West, a working-class woman of the early twentieth century, neither
publicly accepted nor rejected. In her time, middle- and upper-class white
women generally dominated the women's movement, one that would have
certainly disapproved of Mae and her Diamond Lil for their lifestyles and
wanton celebration of their sexuality.
Yet Diamond Lil, like the rest of West's work, did offer a critique of male
privilege that may be better described as "womanish." A womanish con-
sciousness, or womanism, derives from the African-American expression
"you're acting womanish," used when a woman defied gender norms by act-
ing and/or speaking boldly. West had more direct exposure to womanism
than to middle-class white feminist ideology. It was easily accessible through
the blues, for African-American female blues singers conveyed a powerful
womanish presence, rejecting female domesticity and docility. These women
rarely sang of marriage, family, home, and children. Instead, their songs fo-
cused on sexual pleasure, social protest, and gender relations. Rather than
denying their sexuality according to Victorian middle-class norms, they cel-
ebrated it. West imbibed womanism from the blues, adopting her rebellious
voice not from white progressive feminists but from African-American fe-
male blues artists.
Duringo the saloon's musical revue,' Lil performs
r two songs,
o ' both owingo
their origins to the African-American community. The first, "I Wonder
Where My Easy Rider's Gone," was an old blues standard that employed the
language of the racetrack to convey sexual desire through humorous double
meanings. "To win a race, he knows just what to do," Lil sings, expressing the
108 M A E * W E S T
forbidden: overt female lust. West shattered even more norms with "Frankie
and Johnny." Most critics and fans considered it to be the highlight of the
production, one reviewer announcing that it "alone should help keep a line at
the box office." But West's dazzling performance of "Frankie and Johnny"
was more than just a showstopper; it was the play's essence, signifying its
most important messages.31
"Frankie and Johnny" told the true story of a biracial, or "mulatto," St. Louis
prostitute, Frankie Baker, who in 1899 shot and killed her unfaithful lover. In
St. Louis's black community, a song based on Frankie's heartbreak gained pop-
ularity, becoming a bawdy-house favorite. Numerous variants evolved; in
many versions, Frankie is executed for her crime. (In reality, Frankie was set
free.) By the late teens, the song had become a nationwide hit.
"Frankie and Johnny" fell into the category of folk music, but many
artists, like West, delivered it as a blues song. It certainly complemented
other African-American female blues tunes that told tales of women's re-
venge against abusive lovers. In West's version, Frankie learns of her man's
infidelity. She fetches a shotgun, finds Johnny at a "hop joint," and shoots
him. As he dies, he confesses: "I was your man, and I done you wrong."
Frankie is jailed and, knowing her fate is death, repeats the key refrain, "He
32
was myJ man,' and he done me wrong." o
Diamond Lil's plot echoed the underlying spirit and themes of "Frankie
and Johnny" but inverted its storyline. Like Frankie, Lil rebels against male
privilege. Refusing to bow to any man, she repeatedly dupes those around
her into providing her with physical pleasure and diamonds. But, unlike
Frankie, Lil is not victimized by a womanizer, for she does him wrong. Re-
versingo the double standard,' Lil resolves to have all the men she desires. She
fights men with her lack of fidelity, acting as both Frankie and Johnny. And as
the males in the audience gazed upon Lil's "blazing" beauty, she signified on
their power, furnishing women with a heroic voice that triumphs through in-
telligence and wit. "I speak a language which all women can understand in
the due course of time," Lil tells Sally. Lil preaches independence and self-
assurance, standing as an icon of female self-determination.33 At its core,
Diamond Lil is a blues play that explores women "experiencing the experi-
ence," overturning women's oppression using the blues vernacular.
Lil's ties to Frankie signified not only her illicit past and defiant agenda
but also her ethnic background. While Lil appeared to be white, her kinship
to Frankie reveals that, as Mae imagined her, she was really biracial, both
black and white. One reviewer recognized the complexities in Lil's racial
identity, describing her as "a bit of Lulu Belle," Broadway's controversial
mixed-race prostitute.34 Of Lil's past, the playgoer knows only that she is
YOU CAN BE HAD 109
from Chicago, the place where West discovered her black performance roots.
ByJ transformingo Frankie into Lil and making o
her hometown Chicago, o '
Mae
was signifying that Lil, although she looked white, had African-American her-
itage. Mae West may not have been passing, but Lil sure was.
West extensivelyJ used linguistic
o
games,' her signification,
o o '
to undermine
white society and notions of racial fixity. Borrowing from the blues, Mae
fashioned a prototype for what eventually became her most famous line,
"Come upr and see me sometime." Lil twice invites Cummings o to her
boudoir, commanding, "Why don't you drop in and see me sometime?" and
"Why don't you come up sometime?" Mae had used a version of this previ-
ously; in The Drag, a drag queen invites Grayson to "Come up sometime and
I'll bake you a pan of biscuits." Several trace West's character to the campy
Bert Savoy's Margy, who continually effused, "You must come over." No
doubt West, who appropriated material from everywhere, was influenced by
Savoy, but his Margy was loud, outlandish, gossipy, and love starved. Lil was
worldly, secure, a bit reserved, and certainly well loved. She did not even re-
motely fit Savoy's conception of Margy as "the type of woman that knows
everything but knows nothing, that wants to make you believe how bad she is
and never gives herself a chance to be bad." Lil really was "bad."35
West's soon-to-be-trademark line owed its originso
more to the African-
American community and the blues. Perry Bradford, the African-American
songwriter, boasted that the song "He May Be Your Man but He Comes to
See Me Sometimes," which he provided to West years before, was the inspi-
ration for Lil's line. In "He May Be Your Man," a woman brags of her power
and her conquests—that although she "lives six flights up," another woman's
man "sure was willing to climb." Unlike Savoy's man-hungry invitation, Brad-
ford's song more closely matched Diamond Lil's spirit and empowerment.36
Most certainly, the subtleties of Lil's message escaped most in the audi-
ence, but central to the tradition of signifying is its obfuscation of meaning
from the dominant culture. As a result, Diamond Lil drew varied reactions
and interpretations. One critic persisted in taking it seriously, reporting that
the audience laughed inappropriately during Lil's seduction scenes and dis-
missing the play as a mawkish amateur melodrama. Others reveled in Lil's
ribaldry and exploits. Some left the theater with feelings of disquietude.
Critic Stark Youngo viewed Diamond Lil and Mae West as a riddle:
Here is a stage figure who is not one of those players, however admirable,
with whom we can feel at home, knowing that they are the same sort of
human beings as we are, save for a desire to imitate or to exhibit them-
selves or both. You watch Miss West without this easy understanding and
110 * MAE * WEST
also without falling asleep. Whatever ideas or conceptions she may or may
not have, she is alive on the stage as nobody is in life, she shines, she aston-
ishes— shocks, if you like—engages and puzzles you.
Youngo noted that West achieved her effect through o

contradiction—creatingo
motion by being motionless, enacting desirability by being undesirable. He
concluded that her appeal lay in the freedom it permitted spectators. "You
may watch her performance and take it any way you like," he wrote. "The
theater, you perceive, is a place for your pleasure."37
With Diamond Lil's success came the first public profiles of Mae West the
celebrity. In interviews, she closely wedded her star persona to Diamond
Lil, later testifying, "Diamond Lil—I'm her and she's me and we're each
other." This merger o
began
o
backstageo
as she continued to entertain guests
o
while fully costumed. Out of costume, for prying journalists, she confirmed
suspicions that she was Diamond Lil with her weak attempts at separating
herself from the character. In November 1928, the New Yorker ran one of the
first biographical essays on Mae West. Written by Thyra Samter Winslow
and entitled "Diamond Mae," it demonstrated how completely intertwined
West's star image O
had become with that of Diamond Lil. In the interview,'
Mae claimed an unconvincingly distinguished pedigree; her father was a doc-
tor, her sister was married to a Russian count, her brother was a car dealer,
and she had grown up in her "rich grandmother's home in Greenpoint." In
chronicling West's rise, Winslow detailed her years as a child performer, her
successes in vaudeville, including a stint with a "strong act," and her appear-
ances in, as Winslow put it, "Higher Things."
Winslow's skepticism dominated the article. She doubted West's bio-
graphical information, especially her claims that she was born in 1900, and
noted the star's reluctance to really discuss her background. "Mae is secre-
tive," Winslow observed. "Almost to the point of mystery, about her family,
her past—a curious secretiveness." Regardless of West's claims to social
standing,
o 7 Winslow noted her lack of education and distinctive working-class
o
accent and demeanor. "She does not even know the names of important the-
atrical figures unless she has come into direct contact with them," the writer
contended. She quoted West's assessment of her popularity, "People want
dirt in plays, so I give 'em dirt. See?"
As Young had detected conflicting polarities in West's portrayal of Dia-
mond Lil, Winslow discerned them in her performance as a celebrity. The
costumed West appeared gargantuan, but the star, in street clothes, was
small and physically unassuming. Winslow found her perplexing, comment-
ing that she was "self-centered, a bit greedy for the spotlight, optimistic, ea-
YOU CAN BE HAD 111
ger for success, frank, amusing, calm, cold and warmhearted in turn." Most
O O '
bewildering, Winslow discovered that West was "seemingly frank, with a

frankness that tells nothing." O
Mae had succeeded in creatingO a star 1persona
that was every bit as volatile as her stage presence. She had become a trick-
ster both on and off the stage.38
O
With her newfound success, Mae began to challenge Timony. By now,

dieir relationship had become a "devoted friendship." She pursued a string of
affairs with other men that she tried to keep secret from him, but she insisted
that the ever vigilant Timony fought to control her by obligating her to new
projects. In the spring of 1928, with his encouragement, she began working
on another play, The Pleasure Man. She would direct it but cunningly left most
of the responsibility for the production to Timony. By summer, she was audi-
tioning talent and recruiting vaudevillians—hoofers, double acts, acrobats,
O O 7 7 7
comedians, singers, and female impersonators. Oddly, the first week of re-
hearsals focused solely on the first act, which West developed around the
cast's individual talents. One young actress complained, "When I signed I
thought
o
I was ogoingo to be a ogorgeous
o
young
y o
ingenue,
o '
but Miss West could
only see me as a slavey. It's awful to think you have the personality of a slavey."
Despite grumbling from cast members, Variety described West as "serene."39
After the production completed Actors' Equity's probationary period,
which allowed players to cancel without salary forfeiture, West filled in the
rest of the script. Her delay was purely intentional. If anyone had learned of
her plans earlier, she would have found it impossible to recruit a cast. By late
August, Broadway groaned when rumors circulated that West was attempt-
ing to resurrect The Drag.
Only a few weeks later, on September 17, 1928, Mae's latest was ready
for tryouts in the Bronx and Queens. For two weeks, The Pleasure Man played
to sellout crowds. Variety's Jack Conway raved, "Oh my dear, you must throw
on a shawl and run over to the Biltmore in two weeks to see Mae West's
Pleasure Man. . . . It's the queerest show you've ever seen. All the Queens are
in it." Conway, Variety's maverick, branded it a surefire hit but recom-
mended, "Go early, for some of the lines can't last."40
It was good advice, because The Pleasure Man blended The Drag with a sor-
did story of a heterosexual lothario. Rodney Terrill, the dashing heart-
breaker, is a vaudevillian who seduces and casts aside every woman he meets.
Especially crushed is the small-town girl Mary Ann. When she demands that
Terrill marry her, he knocks her cold and leaves her for dead. Bird of Par-
adise Dupont, leader of a drag troupe, comes to her rescue, telling onlook-
ers,' "I rushes down,' seeingo a sister in distress,' and almost ruined myJ ogown
stooping down and raising the poor dear's head."
I I 2 M A E * W E S T
While Mary Ann languishes close to death, the cast departs for a grand
drag ball. But as the festivities conclude, Terrill's body is discovered. He has
been murdered—the cause of death, a botched castration. In the end, Mary
Ann's brother confesses to the crime, crying, "I did what I did because I
wanted him to live in pain and in shame and to know that he could never
again use people for his rotten pleasure."
The Pleasure Man repeated themes that had become common in West's
work. As in The Drag, she established a kinship between women and openly
gay men, both oppressed by the same patriarchal society. "She had an awful
fall," Bird of Paradise reports, "like happens to all us poor girls." Even the
name "Bird of Paradise" tied the production to SEX and its resistance to male
domination. (However, "Dupont" seemed to be a reference to The Ginger
Box's dishonest producer.) The Pleasure Man was notable for the rage it ex-
pressed. Terrill is not only killed for using women, he is castrated. As The
Drag had been a companion to SEX, The Pleasure Man functioned as Diamond
Lil's counterpart. The outrage that simmered beneath Lil's surface boiled
over in The Pleasure Man.4'1
While Diamond Lil sailed by New York City's moral guardians, The Plea-
sure Man did not. When it premiered in Manhattan on October i, 19 2 8, to a
sellout crowd, the authorities were ready. James Sinnott and members of the
district attorney's staff sat in the audience. Outside, plainclothes policemen
took up position, and at each stage door uniformed officers refused to allow
anyone associated with the play to leave the building. As the play came to a
close, more officers arrived and stationed themselves in front of the theater.
Their presence drew a crowd that filled the streets, backing up traffic
throughout the surrounding area. By midnight, over two thousand people
had ogathered around the theater.
When the curtain fell on The Pleasure Man's final act, police took the stage
and announced that everyone associated with the production was under ar-
rest. Officers ordered the players to change into their street clothes. (When
they approached Jim Timony, he avoided arrest by claiming he was just an
innocent "tourist.") Slowly police escorted groups of prisoners through the
mob. When the female impersonators were taken away—a few had refused
to change their costumes—some in the crowd "booed and hissed" and spat
on the sidewalk. Over at the Royale, just as she finished Diamond Lil, the po-
lice took West into custody. When she arrived at the station house, a police
captain asked if she was responsible for The Pleasure Man. According to a re-
porter, she paused and "replied, 'Don't ya read ya noospapers?' " With the
help of Actors' Equity, she immediately posted bail for herself as well as for
the Pleasure Man troupe.42
YOU CAN BE HAD I I3
Authorities hoped to move swiftly and prevent The Pleasure Man from
playing again, but Mae's new attorney, Nathan Burkan, a powerful Tammany
Hall leader and theatrical lawyer, applied for and immediately received a
temporary injunction. The following day, tickets again sold out. Barred from
interfering with the production, the police and representatives from the dis-
trict attorney's office sat in the audience, several taking copious notes.
Although
o
The Pleasure Man was a box office success,' the reviews were
bluntly negative. "A sickening excess of filth," declared the Sun. The New York
Times labeled it "a coarse, vulgar and objectionable specimen," and the New
York Post ranted that it was "smeared from the beginning
o o
to end with such
filth as cannot possibly be described in print." West had touched on the
taboo topics of homosexuality and castration. But her arrest, its accompany-
ing publicity, and the reviewers' visceral condemnations simply brought
more people out to see The Pleasure Man.^
By Wednesday, West's old nemesis, Assistant DA James Wallace, found a
sympathetic judge to vacate Burkan's injunction. That afternoon, just as The
Pleasure Man's drag ball got under way, officers led by Patrick Keneally
rushed down the aisles of the Biltmore, mounted the stage, and shouted that
the entire company was under arrest. An Actors' Equity representative who
protested was hustled out, and the curtain rang down with the crowd chant-
ing, "Shame! Shame!" at the police. One crusading cast member, Jay Holly,
pushed his way onto the stage and shouted:
"This play is going to be stopped before it has been brought to trial. . . .

Do you think that is fair?"
"NO!"thundered the audience.
"The newspapers have tried to make it out a play of degeneracy. They
have tried to cover the cast with filth and mire. Is that fair?"
"NO!" cried the audience.
The police
I
yanked
J
him off the stage
O
as the crowd shouted,' "Let him O
go,' let
him go." The authorities proceeded swiftly, taking the performers into cus-
tody before they could change their costumes. Officers told the press that
this time they wanted all the female impersonators to face arraignment in
full drag.44
The police made deliberate efforts to threaten and humiliate The Pleasure
Mans cast, in particular the drag queens. West's attempts to expedite their
release were blocked by bureaucratic red tape. Additionally, authorities,
rather than holding the men at precinct headquarters, remanded them to the
Tombs, the city's roughest prison. With the NYPD's reputation for violent
114 M A E * W E S T
treatment of gays, cast members in drag certainly had reason to fear. How-
ever, a visit from West reassured them, and Variety reported that as a group
theyJ "began
o chantingo felicitations to their colleagues
o and makingb merry."
y
Their demonstration became so disruptive that the guards threatened them
with additional charges. They quieted down, but it was clear that for gay cast
members, their incarceration carried a political meaning. Finally, after bat-
tlingo the courts into the late evening
o of the following
o day,
J' West secured their
freedom.45
Mae West had always been an outsider, never fully accepted within
Broadway circles, and The Pleasure Man did little to enhance her reputation
among the show business elite. While industry leaders expressed sympathy
for the cast, calling for changes in the censorship law to protect actors and
actresses, some leveled hostile criticism at West. Still, many others heralded
the Pleasure Man controversy as an excellent opportunity to test and perhaps
force repeal of the Wales Padlock Law.
West's latest predicament was no surprise to Broadway insiders. The DA
had acted against several other productions in the weeks preceding the Plea-
sure Man raid, and rumors circulated just before its Manhattan debut that the
authorities planned to stop it. Although West had again been raided in the
mayor's absence, when he returned home Jimmy Walker pledged to see Mae
and her associates brought to trial immediately. "We shall not have disgusting
or revolting degenerate shows for exhibition in this city," he roared to re-
porters. But despite high-toned promises from City Hall, the case against
The Pleasure Man ground to a halt. DA Ban ton proceeded with a seemingly
deliberate sluggishness, and the powerful Burkan won a series of delays.
Over and over, the trial was postponed indefinitely. This time Tammany
46
came through.o
Although The Pleasure Man had been driven off the stage, Mae had a far
greater worry: Tillie had taken ill. Doctors had discovered a malignancy in
her left eye, and treatments had failed to prevent the cancer's spread. By the
fall of 1928, she had grown increasingly infirm. To cheer her, Mae brought
-^ ' O OJ ' O
several of The Pleasure Man's female impersonators out to Long Island for vis-
its. One did her hair, and another made her extravagant
7
o
hats,' one of her
greatest passions. Additionally, Mae showered Tillie with gifts—gowns,
purses, and more hats. Beverly observed, "It kept both of their spirits up."47
Tillie continued to be involved, at some level, in her business endeavors.
The Harding was doing better than ever; its basement now housed Texas
Guinan's newest nightspot, the Intime Club, which drew Manhattan's most
notable citizens. However, in April 1929 the NYPD raided it for violating
nightclub curfew laws. The ailing Tillie found herself with Texas Guinan on
YOU CAN BE HAD 115
a list of co-defendants ordered to stand trial. Through her lawyer, she dis-
avowed any connection to the Intime, publicly evicting it from the Harding.
It was a sacrifice that had to be made to protect Tillie, her famous daughter,
and the backer of both the Intime and the Harding, Owney Madden.48
Legal hassles and personal disappointments weighed heavily on Mae. Dur-
ing the run of Diamond Lil, she began to experience an excruciating pain in
her lower abdomen. Although it was usually brief and came infrequently, it
was extremely debilitating. Doctors declared her in perfect health. West as-
cribed the pain to indigestion and stress, but it is possible that she, like her
Victorian predecessors, suffered the effects of daily wearing a boned and
tightly
o J
laced corset.
In January 1929, Mae received good news. Burkan had convinced a judge
to allow her to tour in Diamond Lil. Even more encouraging, the Shuberts
O O'
had bought out the Linders and their associates. Diamond Lil went first to
Pittsburgh, where it played to a full house on opening night. However, critics
there panned it, and attendance fell the remainder of the week. The next
stop, Chicago, was a different situation. The Shuberts had scheduled Dia-
mond Lil to open their renovated Apollo Theater and had spent a handsome
sum publicizing the production. On January 2o, Diamond Lil made its
Chicago debut to a packed theater, and for most of the next sixteen weeks it
continued to draw large o
audiences.
While she was in Chicago, Mae's pain grew worse and more frequent, oc-
casionally forcing showtime delays or longer intermissions. Another physical
and some X-rays showed nothing unusual. However, the attacks grew so
J O ' O
miserable and frequent that exploratory surgery was looming. That would
have been a disaster for the profitable production, the star, and its investors.
Hoping to keep Mae working, Timony arranged for treatments from Sri
Deva Ram Sukul, a healer and president of the Yoga Institute of America.
The Sri arrived at Mae's hotel room and, after questioning her, held her
hands and prayed in Hindi. He then had her stand up and pressed his hands
against
o
her stomach for several minutes. He declared her cured and de-
parted. From that moment on, Mae insisted, the pains disappeared.49
In early June, West hit the road again, first to Detroit. While theatergoers
there gave her a hearty reception and each performance sold out, some sec-
tors were less welcoming. The local drama critic declared that in Diamond Lil
"frankness and nastiness seem to have reached their ultimate." Mayor John C.
Lodge was determined to close the production; his campaign was aided
when West's representatives distributed a mock-up of the Police Gazette, enti-
tled the Police Bulge, that featured a scintillatingly clad West on its cover. It
fell into the hands of a schoolgirl, and after two weeks of litigation, West
116
l6 * M A E * W E S T
moved on to Buffalo, New York. That city's police and newspapers received
several letters demanding that the vulgar Diamond Lil be stopped. An enter-
prising official quickly discovered that the letters all bore false names and ad-
dresses. Variety conjectured that it was a publicity stunt perpetrated by
West's own camp.50
While playing engagements in the Northeast, West collaborated with edi-
tor Robert Lewis Shayon to compose a defense of her work. The result was
an article, "Sex in the Theatre," for Shayon's Parade magazine. "In my long col-
orful career, one thingO stands out."' she contended. "I have been misunder-
7
stood." She argued that her plays had "a deliberate plan and purpose" and
insisted that her goals were "educational": She hoped to teach the public about
moral wrongs, using the theater as a classroom. In the United States, she
pointed out, discussions of sex were repressed, producing ignorance, confu-
sion, and immorality. Young women, especially those in poverty, were forced
into prostitution, men resorted to promiscuity, and homosexuals faced perse-
cution. Her work was not a threat to society. Rather, American morality was
endangered by "narrow-minded people who happen to have money or con-
trol" and who instigated campaigns to impede her attempts at uplift.51
"Presidents Ada L. Comstock of Radcliffe and Ella F. Pendleton of
Wellesley may be surprised to learn that Mae West is an educator too," chor-
tled one publication. For the most part, West's protestations that her
work—her "art"—was serious and respectable were dismissed as nonsense.
Many considered her simply a profit-driven purveyor of perversion. Variety
snickered that Mae, the "creative genius," maintained a library that contained
only "volume upon volume of treatises on white slavery and a hot collection
of pictures of burlesque queens."52
In the fall of 1929, Mae West packed up Diamond Lil for a tour of the
West. Although Tillie had grown thin and visibly weaker, Mae could not pass
up this road trip. If successful, it promised even more profit. Additionally,
she hoped to bring Diamond Lil to the silver screen. A Los Angeles stopover
would draw the Hollywood crowd and perhaps score a movie contract.
That October, while Diamond Lil was on the road, the stock market
crashed. West floated through relatively unscathed, although Diamond Lil
turned only a modest profit. The Depression adversely affected attendance,
and in many cities turnout was low. When she reached San Francisco just be-
fore Thanksgiving, Lil opened to a sellout crowd, but on subsequent nights,
the audience steadily declined. Even more troubling, Mae learned that her
mother's condition had worsened. Prevented from returning home by the
tour, she dispatched New York's best doctors to Tillie's bedside and sent Ti-
mony to search for the Sri.
YOU CAN BE HAD llj
117
In late December, Diamond Lil moved on to its final stop, Los Angeles.
Echoing the earlier description of Gaby Deslys almost word for word, West
and Diamond Lil were billed as "the most talked of star and play in the world."
On opening night, it drew a capacity crowd, but reviewers were disap-
pointed, believing West had toned down to avoid police intervention. "I don't
know that Diamond Lil has any particular purpose or value," mused the Los An-
geles Times's Edward Schallart while praising her performance as "sensational
enough" and declaring the play an "ideal travesty." Interest in Diamond Lil
quickly petered out; the audience shrank with each passing performance.53
West may have tempered Diamond Lil not only to appease authorities but
also to court Hollywood studios, which operated under movie censor Will
Hays. At first, her chances looked good. Junior Laemmle, son of the founder
of Universal Studios, expressed interest in her work. But after Colonel Jason
Joy, director of Hays's Studio Relations Department, attended the Los Ange-
les showing, he reported to his boss and the studio that Diamond Lil's "vulgar
dramatic situations and the highly censurable dialogue" made it thoroughly
unsuitable for film. He also stridently objected to Laemmle's plan to hire
West as a screenwriter. Shortly afterward, Will Hays issued an ultimatum
that forever banned Diamond Lil, SEX, and The Pleasure Man from the screen.54
As Diamond Lil's Los Angeles engagement came to a close, Mae received
word that the cancer had spread to Tillie's liver and that she was dying. She
hired a private train and on January 14, immediately after her last perfor-
mance, departed with the company, racing to Brooklyn, where Tillie was be-
ing cared for in an apartment house. Mae arrived on January 17, finding her
mother clinging to life. Timony's search for the Sri had failed, so she sum-
moned more doctors. Always a trouper, she reopened Diamond Lil in Queens
on January 2 o. Tillie deteriorated rapidly. On Sunday, January 2 6, at seven in
the eveningo and with her devoted daughter
o
nearby,
J'
Tillie West,' the force
that had nurtured an American folk icon, passed away.55
*S * I * X *
The Subject of the Dream
As a writer reading, I came to realize the obvious: The subject

of the dream is the dreamer. The fabrication of an Africanist
persona is reflexive; an extraordinary meditation on the self; a
powerful exploration of the fears and desires that reside in the
writerly conscious. It is an astonishing revelation of longing,
of terror, of perplexity, of shame, of magnanimity. It requires
hard work not to see this.
—Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark, 1992
illie's passing devastated her older daughter. Mae claimed she
T cried out for her own life to end; it took her father and another
man to subdue her. Then she, the woman who was evolving into a
linguistic legend, plunged into silence. For three days, as Tillie's
body lay at a local mortuary, Mae West was unable to speak. Diamond Lil's
Monday and Tuesday night performances were canceled. Finally, Wednes-
day, the West family, joined by Owney Madden, followed the funeral hearse
to Cypress Hills Cemetery, where Tillie was laid to rest. She would have
been proud of her daughter, for that night Mae returned to the theater and
resumed Diamond Lil.
Finishing this run of Diamond Lil was painful. Each night after her perfor-
mance,7 Mae broke down and cried in her dressingo room. She was incon-
solable: "I turned my J face to the wall. Nothingo mattered." Mae closed the
Woodhaven house; she could not bear to see any of Tillie's photographs or
possessions. And rather than seeking solace in spiritualism, she retreated
from the mystical. Journalist Bernard Sobel, who had joined her at an earlier
seance, dropped by for a visit and noted her total indifference toward the oc-
cult. Mae concluded that the afterlife was a lie; she maintained no hope of
ever seeing her beloved mother again.1
118
THE SUBJECT OF THE DREAM 119
To compound her woes, Burkan had exhausted his legal maneuvering

and could no longer prevent the Pleasure Man matter from coming to trial.
District Attorney Joab Banton, who had done little to pursue the case, had
been ousted in favor of former state supreme court justice Thomas T. C.
Grain. Assuming a get-tough attitude, Grain ordered The Pleasure Man to
trial in early March 1930. Prosecutorial duties fell to James Wallace, who
called for a "blue ribbon jury," men selected for their education and refined
social standing. Burkan vigorously objected, contending that a "special
panel" of jurors selected for their "privileged class" background would be
"not democratic." "Why can't a jury of laborers and artisans decide this
case rather than a jury of the intelligentsia?" Burkan demanded. "We are
entitled to have this case tried by the kind of people who went to see the
play, a regular panel of jurors is just as capable of trying the case as a spe-
cial panel." The judge, Amedeo Bertini, overruled Burkan and ordered a
call for one hundred citizens, chosen specifically for their elite back-
grounds. The defense did successfully impanel three jurors who had seen
Diamond Lil, another who patronized burlesque in his youth, and two more
who conceded that they had not only seen but enjoyed performances by fe-
male impersonators.2
As the trial got underway, Wallace declared that he would "prove that it
would take the most confirmed pervert to write such a play." Impeded by
the defense's refusal to produce a script, he was forced to reconstruct The
Pleasure Man from the arresting officers' testimony. First to the stand was
Captain James J. Coy, who had led both Pleasure Man raids. Coy cited twelve
examples of obscenity in the play, carefully replicating dialogue as well as
"motions and gestures of the actors." Among these were objectionable songs
like "I'm the Queen of the Bitches" (which the defense insisted was "I'm the
Queen of the Beaches"), the performances by female impersonators dressed
in women's "skanties," ' and a "suggestive"
oo acrobatic routine in which one ac-
robat stuck his head into the pants of another.3
During cross-examination, it became obvious that at the Pleasure Man ar-
raignment in the fall of 1928, over a year before, Coy's memory had been
less clear. Under Burkan's pressure, Coy admitted he had earlier relied on
sketchy notes that he had taken in a darkened section of the theater. In prepa-
ration for the trial, he had filled in gaps in his memory with the help of an-
other arresting officer, Sergeant James T. Powers. Since the arraignment, the
two officers had compiled and memorized a written synopsis of the play.
Asked to produce it, the nattily attired officer testified that he had not
brought it along, explaining, "I don't like to bulge myself out." One paper re-
ported that Mae, still solemnly swathed in mourning black, studied Coy
I 20 M A E * W E S T
"with particular interest." It also declared that the captain was "not one to
pose as a mental marvel."
Next came Sergeant Powers, whose assertions that the drag queens
"talked in a high pitched voice" and walked "as I would say like a proud young
woman" elicited a string of objections from Burkan. Passionately, Burkan ar-
gued that female impersonation had a long history in the theater and that
there was no law against it. "That all depends on how it was done," Bertini
replied. After more testimony, the prosecution concluded with its star wit-
ness, Sergeant Terence Harvey. In his particular duties, Harvey had become
an expert on double meanings and street slang; he offered a translation of
what the police contended were the vulgar implications of the dialogue,
songs,
o '
and actions in The Pleasure Man?
After two weeks of testimony, the prosecution rested and Burkan called
his witnesses, most from the play's cast. First came Chuck Connors II. Well
known to New Yorkers, he claimed to be the son of Chuck Connors I, the
self-appointed mayor of Chinatown who guided wealthy slumming parties
through both Chinatown and the Bowery during the 18908. Connors II
maintained that the police's account of The Pleasure Man was outright fabri-
cated. He claimed that he and co-star Ed Hearn, his former vaudeville part-
ner, simply recycled old gags that they had performed for years. Burkan then
invited Connors to demonstrate how the controversial "She's the Queen of
the Beaches" was delivered. With old-style dramatic flourish, Connors,
"clasping
r o
his hands together,
o '
crooned the song."
o
Even the somber Mae re-
acted,' concealingo"her laughter
o
behind a black handkerchief."5
Other cast members also insisted that the prosecution had maliciously mis-
represented the play. Most professed ignorance that their lines carried double
meanings.
o
The Pleasure Man himself,' Alan Brooks,' declared
•
"astonishment" to
learn in court—he insisted for the first time—that his character's death re-
sulted from castration. Leo Howe, who played Bird of Paradise, was equally
oblivious to the show's alleged
o
indecencies. He insisted that his line "I oget
down on my knees" had nothing to do with gay sex, as claimed by expert wit-
ness Harvey, but rather that his character performed "mammy songs."
Of all the defense witnesses, none received more notice than Herman
Lenzen and William Selig, who had played a vaudeville acrobatic team. For
their testimony, they offered ten minutes of "handsprings, back flips, and
balancing stunts." As they finished, Lenzen bounded gracefully onto "the rail-
ing of the jury box." Wallace objected, protesting that the act had been
whitewashed.6
The outlandish trial drew hordes of onlookers and reporters to the court-
house daily. Throughout the proceedings, Mae had Jim Timony by her side.
THE SUBJECT OF THE DREAM I2l
Often her brother, John, and sister, Beverly, joined her. And while she no
longer had Tillie's reassuring presence, she still had the supportive Texas
Guinan, hired by the New York American to cover the hearing. When Guinan
showed up, Mae exchanged hugs and kisses with her good friend. On April
Fools' Day 1931, Burkan abruptly rested; a courtroom observer noted that
Mae "flashed a tiny smile at the beaming Miss Guinan," who was seated at the
press table.7
The next day, Judge Bertini instructed the jury to pay close attention to
"innuendos and double meanings.""The greater danger lies in an appeal to
the imagination
o '
"he warned,' "and when the suggestion
oo
is immoral,' the more
that is left to the imagination, the more subtle and seductive the influence."
O '
But West's signifying style triumphed. After deliberating for ten hours, the
jury announced a deadlock. They insisted that a verdict was impossible since
no one could precisely determine what was said and, more important, how
it was said. Shortly afterward, Grain dismissed all charges against the defen-
dants. Many in the theater community celebrated this as the death of the
Wales Padlock Law. Judge Bertini dismissed the Wales Act as ineffective; it
was virtually impossible to accurately re-create portions of an allegedly ob-
scene production in a courtroom. However, he warned Broadway to exer-
cise more self-control or face stricter censorship.
Although some have celebrated Mae West as an advocate of free speech,
at the time, most considered her purely a profiteer. Yet the trial of The Plea-
sure Man indicated she was a little of both. Judging from early box office re-
turns, if the play had not been interrupted, West and her co-investors stood
to make a considerable sum. However, the endeavor was also risky, and Mae
knew it. Authorities had gone to extremes to keep The Drag out of Manhat-
tan, and she was aware that police action against The Pleasure Man could re-
sult in a stiff er prison sentence if she were twice convicted. Furthermore, if
she went to jail again, Diamond Lil would suffer irreversibly. When The Plea-
sure Man was raided, Diamond Lil was still making her very rich. Without
West, it certainly would have closed. If profit was her only goal, The Pleasure
Man was not a particularly smart move. But if she had principle in mind, it
did function as an effective challenge o
to the Wales Act. Later,' in her autobi-
ography, she pronounced the case's dismissal as "vindication," contending
that it liberated writers, producers, and actors from censorship. Certainly,
Actors' Equity agreed, heralding the outcome with an article proclaiming,
"Pleasure Man Ends Wales Act Reign o
of Terror."8
While West claimed victory—after all, a hung jury reflected disarray and
confusion—she had no energy to celebrate. She still grieved deeply for her
mother. Before long, Texas Guinan headed off to Chicago to open a new
122 M A E * W E S T
nightclub, and George Raft left for Hollywood with Madden, hoping to break
into the movies with help from his dangerously influential pal. Jim Timony
remained,' the heir of Tillie's hard work,' maintainingo a watchful eve J
over his
charge. But he was no substitute for Tillie, the driving force in Mae's life. He
O ' O
arranged
o
for Mae to make a vaudeville comeback on the Fox Circuit,' which
warily offered her a contract but forbade her to shimmy or cooch. She quit af-
ter only a few appearances, her desire to perform exhausted. She later told
interviewers that while the first years after her mother's death were the most
difficult, she never fully recovered from the loss.
Mae had no energy oy
for the stage,
o '
so for a time she turned to writing, 7
o
somethingo her mother had encouraged. o
It is interesting
o
that for almost two
entire years after Tillie's death, probably the most nightmarish period in
Mae's life, the actress focused on constructions of race and ethnicity. Al-
though she experimented with many images, a preoccupation with blackness
eventually dominated her work. Through this she worked out—and eventu-
ally acted out—her "fears," "desires," "longing," "terror," "perplexity,"
"shame," and "magnanimity." It affirmed novelist Toni Morrison's assertion
that when white Americans write about blackness, "the subject of the dream
is the dreamer."9
At first, Mae West tinkered with a project she called Frisco Kate. (She had
received inspiration for it while touring the old Barbary Coast with Diamond
Lil.) A San Francisco prostitute, Kate, is shanghaied by Captain Bull Brack-
ett, who believes she is the embodiment of his beloved white marble statue,
the "Doll." He imprisons Frisco Kate in his cabin, but when he tries to force
himself on her, he accidentally breaks his worshiped statue. Certain it is a
bad omen, he leaves to attend to ship duties. But he soon returns, finding
Kate in the arms of his first mate, Bob Stanton. He throws Stanton into the
brigo and then attacks Kate. She ograbs a dagger
oo
and buries it in his back.
The crew, seafarers of various ethnicities and races, rush in and discover
that Kate has killed the captain. She promises to give herself to every single
one of them if they release Bob Stanton. They agree but insist, despite a
brewing storm, on taking their liberties with her immediately. As they seize
her, the ship is rocked by a clap of thunder. The portholes and the cabin door
fly open. One of the sailors, a devoutly religious Scotsman named MacPher-
son, bursts in and rescues her. As the storm rages, the crew abandons ship.
Freed from the brig, Stanton fashions a raft to carry himself, Kate, and
McPherson to safety.
Frisco Kate was no masterpiece. Kate lacked Diamond Lil's forceful inde-
pendence and calculated wit. Kate's attempts to manipulate men often fail,
and it is a man, MacPherson, who is the story's hero, saving her from gang
rape. Additionally, the play is filled with racist discourse, the crew's back-
ground signified not only by their distinctly ethnic surnames but through
disparaging stereotypes. MacPherson is cheap, and Ling Foo, the ship's Chi-
nese cook, is excessively neat and effeminate. One sailor, Spanish Joe, is ob-
sessed with sex. The crew members exchange o
an endless stream of ethnic
slurs. Even Frisco Kate participates, referring to one seaman as a "bohunk"
and to Lin? o
Foo as a "chink."10
By immersing her character in such an ethnically diverse crew and allow-
ing her to participate in the linguistic racist degradation of "the other," West
affirmed Frisco Kate's status as a white woman. The male characters con-
stantly celebrate her white skin. Brackett gazes at her, remarking, "God, how
white you are. White like marble. . . . White and pale like a sun-kissed
beach." Kate's connection with Brackett's oglistening o
white statue redoubles
11
West's efforts to claim whiteness.
However, despite its racist tone and Frisco Kate's overdetermined white-
ness, the play does contain disjunctures that covertly challenge aspects of
white racism. In addition to MacPherson, Ling Foo, and Spanish Joe, the
crew also includes Irish, Scandinavian, German, British, and African-Ameri-
can members. And Frisco Kate not only knows them all but is willing to
sleep with any of them regardless of race or ethnicity. Indeed, she has already
shared intimacies with some, in particular the African-American crewman
Jackson, who seems to know her very well.
On one hand, Kate's willingness to participate in miscegenation demon-
strated, within the white mindset, her great depravity, by asserting the no-
tion that only the most degenerate of white women crossed the color line.
On the other, Kate's interracial relationships undermined white conventions
that strictly separated the races. In the racist and patriarchal imagination, the
bedroom of a white woman would be one of the most segregated O O
places
-T
in
the United States. Not so Kate's, for she accepted all lovers if they had some-
thing to offer in exchange. Essentially, Kate (and West) used these men of di-
verse backgrounds and race to rebel against both subjection as a woman and
racist restrictions. Kate refused to allow the white man to imprison her and
use her exclusively.
It is hard to assess West's complete intentions in Frisco Kate, for the play
never reached the rehearsal stage, a critical step in her creative process.
She sent a version of the script to the Shuberts, but like most of the the-
atrical community, they were feeling the Depression's pinch. By the sum-
mer of 1930, almost half of New York City's theaters had shut their doors,
and the Shuberts were running deep in the red. They shelved the unproven
Frisco Kate.12
In the meantime, West poured herself into another project—a novel.

"The challenge of a new writing form would cloud my grief, I hoped," she
wrote in her autobiography. She decided it would be about an interracial
love affair between a white woman and a black man, a topic she had been
pondering since the summer of 1929 while playing in Diamond Lil. Although
she was closely tied to the African-American community, she claimed that
Howard Merling, a white actor, director, and playwright, had been her cata-
lyst. He had visited Mae in her dressing room just as Bea Jackson was on her
way to see her aunt in Harlem. According to West, Jackson's presence com-
pelled Merling to suggest a project "mixing the black and white theme to-
ogether." Like Mae,' he had cruised Harlem's nightspots,
o r ' and he urged o her to
cash in on its vogue. Apparently, he later returned with a stack of indeci-
pherable
F
notes about Harlem. Intrigued,
O '
she Ogave him a small role in Dia-
mond LJ^'S road tour so he could "recite" his jottings to her.
During the winter of 19 3 o, in her depths of sorrow, Mae returned to the
Harlem project. Once she immersed herself in writing, she found that the
story flowed. With the assistance of a Dictaphone and a secretary, she worked
quickly: "I saw the story and wrote it as it came to me." She entitled it Black
and White. Even before she finished the first draft, publishers were lining up
for appointments. One of these was Lowell Brentano. A Harvard graduate,
editor, and author, he headed one of the nation's most prestigious publishing
houses. Brentano's list included George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling, and
reprints of John Milton's poetry. Brentano, determined to add West to this
distinguished list, secured a meeting with her in her hotel suite.13
By this point, Mae had a routine for receiving guests and interviewers—a
ritual constructed to reinforce her image, a performance in itself. She se-
lected specific attire, usually an expensive negligee. Before guests arrived,
her staff arranged the room to create the proper impression, making sure
her entrance was timed for the maximum impact. Mae West's home had
now become a stage, designed to confirm her star persona.
Brentano got the full treatment. A "demure" Bea Jackson escorted him
into an expansive living room almost devoid of furniture except for an enor-
mous bed and a mirror emblazoned with the words "Mae West—SEX—Di-
amond Lil." Elevated above the rest of the room on a platform and
surrounded by four small gilded chairs, the bed was adorned in lace and
topped with an elaborate corniced canopy. "I was afraid to sit on the bed,
afraid to sit on the chairs," Brentano anxiously reported. "So nervously I
paced the room." After several suspenseful moments, West made her ap-
pearance, one hand on a hip and swaying past Brentano with a polite "How
do you do?" After silently reclining on her bed, she murmured, "What can I
do for you?" Then, sensing his nervousness, she "patted" the bed and cooed,
"Now, Mr. Brentano, don't be bashful, come right over here and sit down."
Brentano convinced West to sign O
with his house,* the contract specifying
1 J O
his right to make "limited" editorial changes. When he received the com-
pleted manuscript, he excised several passages he deemed too shocking. Al-
though West protested the deletions, she eventually gave in. But she warned
him, "Don't try to make me respectable, Mr. Brentano; my public expects
me to be bad."14
Despite Brentano's revisions, his stodgy editorial board rejected not only
the manuscript but its author as well. Members expressed disbelief that he
even dared to consider anything written by Mae West. The board's vigorous
opposition forced him to sell West's contract to another publisher, Macaulay.
An eclectic house, it published popular writers including Dashiell Hammett,
serious authors like John Dos Passes and William Carlos Williams, and the
Harlem Renaissance novelist Wallace Thurman. Macaulay dispensed with
West's title, Black and White and renamed the book Babe Gordon, after its cen-
tral character.
The beautiful Babe Gordon is a white prostitute who operates in contem-
porary Harlem pursuing two things — sex and money. Her philosophy is
straightforward:
6 "If anyJ man can have as manyJ women as he wants,' there is
no reason why a woman should not do the same thing." As the novel opens,
Babe works a Harlem prizefight, where she hopes to entice victorious boxers
out of their winnings, and successfully attracts the middleweight champi-
onship contender, a white boxer named Bearcat Delaney. Impressed by his
power, strength, and earning potential, she tricks him into believing that she
is an innocent, sheltered from society's underside. Masking her true identity,
she quits hustling to become a fashion model. Delaney, deeply in love, show-
ers her with money, presents, and a surprise marriage proposal. Even though
she disdains matrimony, Babe accepts, anticipating that as middleweight
champion he will have a handsome income. However, under her influence,
Delaney neglects his training and ultimately loses his shot at the title. Deter-
mined to support his wife, he buys a taxi, but Babe, deciding that he has ex-
hausted his usefulness, leaves him.15
She returns to Harlem and supports her lavish tastes by peddling illegal
drugs from the cosmetics counter of Baldwin's Five and Dime. She takes a
O
new lover, Money Johnson, an African-American pimp, bootlegger, and

gamblingO kingpin,
O OI >
described as an "Apollo"
I
with "self-assurance '""hot burn-
ing eyes," and "magnetism." Together they make a stunningly beautiful pair,
throwing extravagant parties in Johnson's elaborately furnished Strivers Row
home and frequenting Harlem's nightspots.16
126 * M A E * W E S T
At one of these after-hours cabarets, the Harlem Breakfast Club, Wayne

Baldwin, a Manhattan blue blood and owner of Baldwin's Five and Dime,
spots Babe and Johnson. Repulsed but beguiled by the interracial couple, he
is seized by an unquenchable desire for Babe. Later, after police imprison
Johnson for his criminal activities, Baldwin discovers that Babe works in his
store. Wanting her for his lover, he offers her an uptown apartment with a
maid and a large monthly allowance. Babe eagerly accepts, leaving the
Harlem nightlife
o
behind for Baldwin's high-society
o J
circles.
When Johnson is released from prison, he immediately summons Babe to
a Harlem apartment where he has resumed his illegal operations. She arrives
intendingo to end their affair,' but when his robe falls open,
r '
she "hesitated a
moment; her eyes traveled over his symmetrical body. Finally her eyes met
his ... Babe thought: 'Oh, what the hell. A couple of hours won't hurt.' " A
couple of hours dissolves quickly into a night of sensual pleasures.17
Both Baldwin and Delaney learn of Babe's tryst and race over to Johnson's
hideout. Baldwin arrives first, bolts into the apartment, attacks the Harlem
crime boss, and shoots him dead. At Babe's urging, the dime store mogul es-
capes out a back window. Next Delaney bursts in and discovers Babe sobbing
in apparent despair over Money Johnson's lifeless body. She convinces him
that Johnson assaulted her and, while defending herself, she killed him. She
professes her love to her husband, and to protect her he volunteers to take
the blame for the crime.
Delaney stands trial for Johnson's murder, defended by Baldwin's high-
priced lawyer, who argues that the boxer acted in a just defense "of his most
cherished possession, a good and beautiful wife." He praises Delaney for pre-
servingo what he calls "the best traditions of the white race,7 the honor of its
womanhood," and declares Johnson's behavior an "affront to the whole white
world." As a result, the all-white jury acquits Bearcat. Shortly afterward,
Babe runs away with Baldwin to Paris. As the story closes, Baldwin puzzles
over the interracial nature of Parisian society, which serves as a constant re-
minder of Babe with Johnson, a memory that is for Baldwin a "thrill" as well
as an abhorrence.18
West's dizzying venture into race relations functioned as a very personal
statement. Only a few months before she began the project, she told a jour-
nalist that she was planning to write her autobiography, and in many ways
Babe Gordon became just that. The major players in her life appear in the
novel's pages. Babe was clearly a composite of Mae's perceptions of herself
and her mother. Bearcat, the clueless and hapless has-been boxer, the target
of Babe's most deceptive acts, called up the image of Jack West. His man-
ager, Charlie Yates, obsessed by profit and maintaining a suffocating grip on
THE S U B J E C T OF THE D R E A M 1 2j
Bearcat, drew from Timony and his dictatorial control over her life. "Char-
lie's a jailer, I tell ya," remarks another boxer. "Yer under lock and key alia
time yer scrappin' for him. He don't let you have no life." Money Johnson of-
fered a composite of her black and white lovers and male friends, including
white racketeer Owney Madden and black nightclub proprietor Johnny
Carey. In the novel, Mae revisited old stomping grounds; the Harlem Break-
fast Club bore striking similarities to Carey's Nest Club, popular for its
breakfast dance.19
In manyJ ways, J '
through
O
Babe Gordon West enacted revenge O
against
O
those
who had abused, dominated, or impeded her. Although her attack on Tim-
ony through Charlie Yates, who only values Bearcat as a commodity, is par-
ticularly pointed, most of the novel's animus is directed at Battling Jack
West. Babe lashes out against all male authority, but none of her lovers is
more duped than Bearcat. He shows an occasional flare of temper, but over-
all he is helpless against her. Physically strong, he is emotionally and intellec-
tually weak. Bearcat is so gullible that he actually believes Babe goes to
church each Sunday.
West's deepest autobiographical confessions occurred through her ma-
nipulation of both the racial other and her racial self, expressing various
psychic and societal tensions over white identity. Using African-American
characters, West created a space where she probed the construction of her
stage, real, and star identities. Black characters, like Money Johnson, per-
mitted an exploration of power and self through a manipulation of the ide-
ology of racism.
OJ
Throughout Babe Gordon, scenes, characterizations, and dialogue reinforce

racism. West freely employs racist epithets and degrading black stereotypes.
Almost all black characters adhere to traditional racist images; they are ei-
ther ridiculously foolish or dangerously hypersexual. Their dialect is con-
trived to display childlike ignorance or savage drives. Furthermore, West
animalizes her African-American characters. Money Johnson has "lynx eyes"
and is described as a "lordly lion," a "magnificent animal," and even a "gorilla."
West repeatedly refers to Harlem as a "jungle."20
Additionally, West portrays blacks as exotic. The men are physically
strong and sensual; the women possess "soft brown eyes and fertile bodies
filled with primitive fire." She depicts Harlem as consumed with carnality,
calling it "a museum of occult sex" where the "old story of civilization's lusts
was being retold." Her description of a Harlem cabaret's dance floor rein-
forces this: "The bodies of almost naked colored women, wriggling and
' DO O
squirming, moved about. . . . The music excited, irritated, inflamed the ani-
mal instincts. . . . A society group had its eyes riveted on a black hula dancer,
128 * M A E * W E S T
weaving sensuously up and down near the corner of their table." From
West's perspective, Harlem's nightlife was an "orgy."21
West also upholds racism using what seems to be an attack on miscegena-
tion. With his high-society pedigree, Wayne Baldwin appears as the novel's
most respectable character. He is wealthy, educated, and powerful, one of
society's leaders. West prominently features his revulsion to interracial rela-
tions. Driven by what she describes as his "instinctive antagonism" when he
first encounters Babe and Johnson, he "wanted to do something to shame the
woman and put that burly dinge back in his place." Baldwin's outrage springs
from his belief that Johnson had violated white society's most sacred taboo
by "intruding into the forbidden circle of white caste." Ultimately, Johnson
pays with his life for his affair with a white woman, and Bearcat Delaney is
exonerated of murder because he has protected "the honor and virtue" of his
white wife. Racist ideology dictated that Johnson pay for defying its codes
and granted white men immunity from prosecution for crimes against black
men. But it also permitted white women, like Babe Gordon, to hypocriti-
cally sacrifice their black lovers to protect their own reputations.22
Still, Babe Gordon offered a myriad of subtextual, intertextual, and signi-
fied meanings.o
Statements against
o
interracial relations are countered by
J
as-
sertions supporting them that West then reverses and reverses again, her
narrative imparting signfying's sensation of being in a "hall of mirrors."
Among the many layers of her novel, a rebellion against racism also
emerges, primarily through the signifying character, Babe Gordon.
For Babe Gordon, men are men; race is unimportant, and only money (or
Money) matters. Living and working in Harlem, she establishes friendships
with black residents and is integrated into the community's underclass. Of her
nonsexual relationships, her closest is with her African-American maid, Pearl.
A clear demarcation exists between the two, but they share a friendship, and
Babe accepts Pearl's counsel. Babe has no relationships with white women—
all portrayed, as in West's Welfare Island article, as repulsive and asexual—
and vehemently despises them for their weaknesses and helplessness.
In one sense, West's novel is not about Babe Gordon's steamy romances
but is a tale of African-American and European-American intermixing that
challenged racial segregation. Beginning with the book's opening passages,
in which Babe solicits in a racially integrated crowd during a boxing match,
West presents a society that differs dramatically from the white dominant
culture's fantasy of a strictly racially separated America. Rather, in West's
story, African Americans and European Americans come together on a daily
basis. Their lives constantly intersect—while shopping, in Harlem's night-
clubs, at work, and even in the bedroom, where the races mix with consen-
sual intimacy. "Harlem is the pool of sex, where all colors are blended, all
bloods are mingled," she writes. When Baldwin first realizes that Babe has an
African-American lover, he is shocked and infuriated, but the novel's narra-
tive voice comments, "Why not? Other white women had them." Wayne
Baldwin may represent the sentiments of many whites, but he is out of touch
with reality.23
What motivates the two races to come together?
o
Accordingo
to Baldwin's
friend Jack Rathburne, a patron of Harlem nightspots, curiosity and "sexual
preference" drive interracial relationships. At this juncture West intersects her
notions of race with her views on sex. From her standpoint, repressive Victo-
rian attitudes about sex, which she labeled "Puritanism," severely damaged so-
ciety. With Babe Gordon, she continued a call for sexual liberation, promoting
her conviction that if Americans approached sex more honestly and viewed it
as a positive, not negative, force, then society would be freed of many of its
problems. Although her personal experiences were more complicated, she ar-
gued for the acceptance of sex as normal and healthy, not to mention fun. 24
West uses interracial sex to signify, reflecting but revising racist stereo-
O J' O O
types. She uncritically accepts the racist assertion that African Americans are
more passionate and sensual than whites but rejects the assumption that
these qualities are inferior. Her work contends that African Americans pos-
sess healthier attitudes toward sex and therefore are superior to whites. She
brands Harlem as "a sensual oasis in the sterile desert of white civilization,"
insisting that white Americans are drawn to it because there "the lusts that
ancient Rome and Athens could not purge from their proud and disciplined
cultures—the flesh cry that has persisted through all time—found expres-
sion and release." In Harlem, European Americans engaged in interracial re-
lationships and, under the influence of what West depicts as black culture,
were emancipated from white society's constraints. She concludes, there-
fore, that miscegenation is natural and beneficial, not to mention satisfying.
In later years, when discussing racial discrimination, West stated, "I've al-
ways been against repression of any kind." The linguistic parallels between
her description of racism and classical Freudian terminology for sexual
prudishness indicate that in her mind the two were linked.25
West chose to articulate her key messages through an elderly African-
American woman, Old Liza. In a passage that serves no other purpose than
to expose the reader to a discussion of miscegenation, Liza resolves the text's
internal debate over racial intermixing. When one of Johnson's spurned
black lovers, Big Ida, fumes about his relationship with "dat dirty white
trash" Babe Gordon, Liza calms her. "Yes, ol' Liza sho' knows life," she states.
"Had a heap o' experience." And she observes:
130 M A E * W E S T
Ah seed duh white and duh black mixin' jus' lak now. Duh colored gals
and duh white men and duh white gals and duh colored men. Duh mixin'
o' duh black an' white been ogoin' on fo' ages
o
an' ages.
o
Yo' read 'bout dat
whay back in duh Bible. Yes, chile, it's right dere in duh Good Book.
Liza proclaims the inevitability of racial mixing: Interracial relations have

and will occur. By invoking the Bible, she legitimatizes them, declaring them
unstoppable. In West's view, despite the dominant culture's attempt to pre-
vent miscegenation, it had already begun. Its impact, she insisted, "will color
the mind and body of countless thousand generations to come." It is possible,
given her own ambiguous paternal heritage, that this signified a glimpse
throughO
one of her "secret doors." Regardless,
O '
it was an ominous wake-up 1
call to racist Americans, alerting them that their efforts to claim and pre-
serve racial purity were futile.26
Additionally, Bearcat Delaney's trial could be viewed as another state-
ment against racism, a satire on the justice system. It signifies on the incom-
petence of and inequalities in the legal system, resulting from the corrupt
partnership between racism and Puritanical repressiveness. Money John-
son's murderer cannot be brought to justice in white courts. In a trial involv-
ing what essentially is a lynching of an African-American man, whites can
manipulate the proceedings into a not-guilty decision. While Johnson's
crimes are numerous, he is innocent of attacking Babe Gordon. However,
the wealthy Baldwin, who is never even implicated, is guilty of murdering a
man out of racist, jealous rage. Nonetheless, the accused, Bearcat Delaney,
goes free, not because of his innocence but as the result of his lawyer's appeal
to oppressive sexual and racial attitudes and to what West identifies as the
"unwritten law" that exonerates white males in crimes against the African-
American people.
As West's work veered between embracingo and underminingo white
racism, it continually functioned as a personal cathartic. She had crossed the
color line herself and, no doubt, grappled with what that meant in society's
broader context. Babe Gordon allowed her to explore her internal conflicts,
including her personal crisis over the issue of race. Much of West's identity
was grounded in a racist ideology that defined whiteness in juxtaposition to
the imagined inferior and negative qualities of African Americans. However,
as an actress since childhood, onstage West had internalized oppositional
and conflicting identities, eventually rejecting hegemonic societal forces by
embracing African-American culture. Despite its racist overtones, Babe Gor-
don reveals West's deep connection to the black community. Wayne Bald-
win's snobbish sister, learning of Babe's background, exclaims with horror,
"Do you mean that her associations all her life have been with prizefighters
THE SUBJECT OF THE D R E A M 13!
and negroes?" It reflected some of West's autobiographical reality, one of her

"secret doors," and indicated that she believed that she shared a marginalized
status similar to that of African Americans.27
West's identification with what she perceived as "blackness" went to the
core of her real self, star image,
7
O '
and stage persona. While it is true, as sev-
O 1 7
eral scholars have argued, that West used black characters to highlight her
whiteness, their presence served also to destabilize her racial identity. She
created racial confusion primarily by embracing primitivism, an ideology
that exoticizes black people, contending they are more emotional, sexual,
and instinctual than whites. Rather than denigrating primitivism, as racist
thought did, she celebrated it as a superior way of life, invoking the image of
the happy and fulfilled noble savage freed of Western restraints. West con-
tended that a suppressed primitivist drive beats within everyone; Babe re-
fuses to deny her primitive impulses. Although she is lured to Bearcat's
physical roughness and Baldwin's "sophistication," neither man is any match
for the supercharged, irresistible Money Johnson, a passionate and powerful
lover. But Babe rescues these white men; her primitivism is infectious.
Bearcat discovers "the compelling force of his inner passion," and the austere
Wayne Baldwin is transformed "from the polished society man to a primitive
male hungry and thirsty for her body."28
Although primitivism was ultimately another manifestation of racist ide-
ology, West heralded it as preferable to what she discerned as European-
American frigidity. She was not alone, for other writers of the era also ex-
perimented with primitivism. Many white authors, scholars, and play-
wrights, confronting Western society's problems and anxieties, were
entranced by the so-called primitive, using it throughout their works. Histo-
rian Nathan Huggins contends that primitivism became so pervasive during
the 19205 that even the Harlem Renaissance's African-American writers and
artists subscribed to it, celebrating its superiority and liberating energy.
While West's work had long leaned toward primitivism, her affinity may
have been augmented by a direct link to the Harlem Renaissance. It is likely
that her manuscript passed through the hands of Wallace Thurman, who
worked for Macaulay as a reader, editor, and ghostwriter and eventually be-
came its editor in chief. Macaulay was small, and Thurman would have been
the most logical editor for West's book. He was thoroughly familiar with all
O O J
aspects of Harlem life; he lived there and wrote extensively about the com-
munity. A satirist and cunning critic, he borrowed from primitivism and,
like West, hailed its emancipating effects. And he was familiar with Mae
West: He had paid a passing tribute to her by having one of his African-
American male characters in a novel run off with the "Diamond Lil of
WHORE RO
132 M A E * WEST
No matter how much control Thurman had over West's manuscript, Babe
Gordon was an outgrowth
o
of the Harlem Renaissance. West had immersed
herself in Harlem's creative energy through her relationships with African-
American musicians and performers as well as her presence on the nightclub
scene. She even linked her novel to the movement, conceiving of it as a re-
sponse to the work of white author Carl Van Vechten. Characterized by
Huggins as the "midwife to the Harlem Renaissance," Van Vechten promoted
many African-American writers, including James Weldon Johnson, Countee
Cullen, and Langston Hughes. He often entertained Renaissance partici-
pants at mixed-race parties in his uptown apartment and was a familiar fig-
ure in Harlem,' hauntingo its cabarets and actingo as a tour oguide for whites
desiring a glimpse into the community and its nightlife.
In 1926, Van Vechten produced his most famous novel, Nigger Heaven,
which explored the effects of racism on Harlem's population. Many cred-
ited, or blamed, it for attracting droves of white thrill seekers to Harlem. It
received mixed reviews from the African-American community: Some ap-
plauded its portrayal of the black struggle; many condemned it as racist. Ei-
ther way, Van Vechten's use of the pejorative title offended most African
Americans. Yet it became a bestseller and, in the white public's eyes, estab-
lished its author as an authority on Harlem. West criticized Van Vechten's
work, which she insisted was directed only at "intellectuals" and "long haired
village types." Contending her work was more important because she ad-
dressed the masses, West dismissed Van Vechten as "blond, chi-chi, and
bored" and "a hunter of sinister sensations to be found in odd parts of New
York." In her view—and many African Americans agreed—Van Vechten
exploited Harlem for his own profit and amusement.30
West saw herself and her work in an entirely different category from Van
Vechten. Class divisions separated these two authors. Although both were
active in Harlem at the same time, they met only once, when Van Vechten
showed up with other oglers backstage at Diamond Lil. For him, Mae West,
like the Harlem he roved, was another "sinister sensation," and she knew it.
It is not surprising that West decided to use Babe Gordon to dialogue with, or
signify on, the acclaimed, upper-crust, white Harlem expert. Scholar Henry
Louis Gates Jr. contends that texts signify on other texts, that books talk to
other books, reflecting and revising previous works. Although West's plot
differs significantly from Van Vechten's, she plays on and with his images and
themes, mirroring some and altering others.
7
O O
As a signifying text, West's work diverges from Van Vechten's, differing

over the nature of primitivism. Van Vechten implies that it has biological un-
derpinnings absent in European Americans. His light-skinned character, Mary
THE SUBJECT OF THE D R E A M 133
Love, blames her lack of passion on her predominantly European heredity.

However, West maintains that primitivism is environmental, and from her
perspective everyone has primitivist potential. Babe proves it. In fact, West
not only rejects the essentialist argument but links it to class affiliation rather
than racial differences. Wayne Baldwin is much further from his primitive
drives than Babe's working-class prizefighter husband, aptly named Bearcat.
In contrast to Van Vechten, West never directly addresses the African-
American struggleoo
against
o
racism. Van Vechten examines racism and its im-
pact by placing his characters in situations where they encounter white racial
hostility. While West acknowledges the presence of black rage in a prizefight
scene where the black crowd roars with pride when an African-American
boxer triumphs against his white opponent, she never directly links it to its
white sources: segregation and bigotry.
Despite this shortcoming, West successfully signifies on Van Vechten's
approach to race relations. While he praises the African-American under-
class for "primitive virtues," underclass characters appear only briefly in his
tale. Van Vechten concentrates on the African-American elite, basing his cen-
tral characters on African-American writers, intellectuals, and artists he had
befriended. It was their fight for equality that captivated him. In contrast, the
African-American bourgeoisie is absent from West's work; she concentrates
entirely on the black working-class underworld. Her work implies that
Harlem's real story does not lie with the black or white elite; rather, it can be
found in the underclass, where the races merge. In Van Vechten's novel,
blacks and whites rarely mix. But in West's work they are in constant contact;
it is the classes that are segregated.
o o
Although
o
Van Vechten's characters intel-
lectualize about various liberation strategies, they never pursue any effective
action against racism, leaving the race problem in an abyss. West, however,
offers a solution—miscegenation. Her vision of a racially fused population
renders racism obsolete in the future; the underclass seizes the lead in recon-
structingo race relations and healingo
America's racial divisions.
In a sense, Babe Gordon (as well as Babe Gordon) was a product of interra-
cial mixing, projecting West's conceptions of both whiteness and blackness.
Mae herself appeared not only in Babe but also in the black characters in her
book. She materializes within a shimmy dancer and a blues singer at the
Harlem Breakfast Club. She is also reflected in an African-American female
comedian who discloses West's fundamental secret—the power of illusion.
"Just give me a pair of eyes what Ah can prestidigitate wit'," she brags, "an'
Ah make any man think I got the rest." But she is also Money Johnson; no
other character even approximates her self-professed extreme eroticism and
passion. Her identification with him runs deep. West decorates Johnson's
134 M A E * WEST
home as she later did her own—with mirrors that doubled and redoubled
its resident's image. Babe, Mae, and Money Johnson play in the "hall of mir-
rors,"befuddling spectators who see them everywhere but cannot discern
which of their images is real. And despite the confusion created by the infi-
nite reflections, only one truly exists—the trickster, Mae. 31
The troubling ambiguities of West's novel exist because it is a trickster
tale that uses racism to sabotage O
racism. The central character, * Babe Gor-
don, is a trickster, a signifier who creates and revels in chaos. Babe revises all
the rules that prescribe white women's conduct. By defying society's
strictest codes, especially those that forbid miscegenation, Babe signifies not
only on male authority but also on white Americans and their racism. As the
trickster, she empowers herself by pitting man against man, man against
woman, rich against poor, and white against black. But most important,
West's narrative signifies on the reader. Filled with conflicting messages
about race, Babe Gordon dupes its audience into believing that it reaffirms
their attitudes, no matter what those are, while at the same time opposing
their firmly held assumptions. Mae West's work had evolved to a dangerous
stage; her unsettling vagaries now compelled her audience to decode what-
ever meaning they desired and/or feared.
So the question remains: Was Mae West promoting racism or fighting
racism? The answer is yes—not only because as a signifier she had two
voices but also because she, like many other Americans, was in turmoil over
the subject of race. Racism continued to shape her worldview, but her close
ties to the African-American community constantly challenged racist hege-
mony. Babe Gordon reveals that the race question, like issues of class and gen-
der, remained unresolved in Mae West's mind. West was conscious that her
ambivalence surfaced in her work, stating, "I wrote in innuendos, I write the
way I feel. It just comes out that way."32
Babe Gordon was an important step for Mae West. She had reached a mile-
stone in the development of her subversive presence. When she completed
her novel, she claimed the experience had renewed her. Although she still
mourned her mother,' she was,' she asserted, '
"alive and living
o o
again. I felt my
J
old drive, my familiar urges." In the summer of 1930, Macaulay sent the
book to press and began planning an elaborate promotional campaign.33
In the meantime, West had convinced the Shuberts to back a road tour of
the controversial SEX. At the end of August, SEX departed for its first
stop—Chicago. The Shuberts mounted a cheap but attention-getting pub-
licity campaign with playbills cautioning theatergoers, "WARNING—if you
cannot stand excitement—see your doctor before visiting Mae West in
SEX." Chicago to turned out in droves for most of SEX's eleven-week engage- oo
ment. A journalist noted the loyalty of female fans, who filled matinees to
capacity almost until the end of the show's run. In early November, the show
left to tour the Midwest for an uneventful eight weeks. According to Variety,
first-night audiences were enormously large, but in each city attendance de-
clined quickly.34
In November, while West was on the road, Macaulay issued Babe Gordon
with press releases promising that it possessed "those qualities which made
her plays SEX and Diamond Lil appeal to all ranges of the public." Readers
snapped it up. Within a few weeks, the press issued a second run, and by
spring it had already gone into a fourth printing. As a promotional gimmick,
Macaulay sponsored a contest that allowed readers to give the book a new ti-
tle. In March, after receiving over 4,000 suggestions, the publisher selected
The Constant Sinner and issued the rest of the printings under that title. While
book reviewers bypassed West's novel—it was pulp fiction—a few newspa-
pers congratulated her for authenticity and "racy dialogue." By West's esti-
mation The Constant Sinner was Macaulay's bestselling book in five seasons.
Later, Brentano, pointing to the profits it raked in, confessed that he felt sat-
isfactorily vindicated.35
In early January 1931, West returned home and, eyeing the success of her
novel,' decided The Constant Sinner could be transformed into a money-making
J o
play. By July, she had opened negotiations with the Shuberts. Wary of the
play's controversial topic, they cloaked their dealings with the notorious
Mae West behind a third party, their general manager, Joseph M. Gaites,
who organized an independent production company called Constant Pro-
ductions Incorporated. Soon, West secured a contract promising her gener-
ous royalties for the play, paying her ô percent of the box office, and
covering Bea Jackson's thirty-dollar-a-week salary. West secured the Royale
and began
o
searchingo for her cast.
While West recruited mostly inexperienced and inexpensive white cast
members, she secured several highly acclaimed African-American perform-
ers for the play. She signed up Trixie Smith, one of the era's most popular
blues singers,
o '
as Liza. For the Harlem nightclub
o
scene, West enlisted Con-
7
nie's Inn dancingO sensation Paul Meers,' who had1performed with the cele-
brated Josephine Baker. From the successful all-black production Green
Pastures came Harry Owens, Henry Matthews, Allen Cohen, and Florence
Lee. As Clara, the revamped Big Ida, West selected Olive Burgoyne, a vet-
eran of numerous Broadway productions who, along with several others in
the cast, had appeared in Show Boat. Rudolph Toombs, who played a new
character, a Harlem resident named Mister Gay, had won critical praise in
vaudeville as a tap dancer. In all, West signed up fourteen African-American
136 M A E * WEST
actors and actresses; most had impressive credentials, and several had bro-
ken down the barriers in the white entertainment world.36
But a major casting problem loomed: finding the appropriate actor to
play Money Johnson. In West's mind, there was only one choice, the man
known to African-American audiences as "the black Valentino," the hand-
some and debonair Lorenzo Tucker. He had a long list of credits and had
starred in several movies for African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.
Additionally, he had appeared in small parts on Broadway, most recently in
Wallace Thurman's play Harlem, and often served as master of ceremonies at
several Harlem nightclubs.
o He wasto dashing and suave,' a heartthrob in the
African-American community. His audition convinced West he was perfect
for the role.
Even though it was a black part, when the Shuberts and Jim Timony dis-
covered that West intended to cast an African-American man as her lover,
they stridently objected. The topic of interracial love could potentially ig-
nite another court case and a general outcry from white New Yorkers. Inti-
macy between black men and white women had been a taboo subject in New
York theater. In 1924, Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings had in-
duced an uproar with its depiction of an interracial marriage. West's con-
ception of interracial relations was far bolder than O'Neill's portrayal of an
unbalanced white woman and her anguished to
African-American husband.
Babe was a perfectly sane white woman, and her affair with Money Johnson,
a man she was not even married to, smouldered with passion.
According to Lorenzo Tucker, the Shuberts demanded that Money John-
son be portrayed by a white man in blackface. West capitulated and hired
white actor and vaudevillian George Givot for the part, but only under the
condition that Tucker replace Givot for the road tour. She retained Tucker,
casting him as the Harlem Breakfast Club's headwaiter and as an extra who
gives Babe an inviting glance. The Shuberts mandated that Givot remove his
wig at the end of each performance to assure audiences that a white man,
not a black man, was romancing Mae West onstage.
The Shuberts were not through o
with Tucker. Rumors abounded that Mae
West was, in reality, having an affair with the charming actor. Although Tucker
later denied they were involved, the two shared a close relationship. When the
Shuberts attempted to fire him for drinking on the job, West interceded. She
then called Tucker to her dressing room and warned him to stay strictly sober
at the theater. Tucker claimed, "I kissed her and she said, 'Don't worry.' " The
Shuberts hassled him for several more weeks, but West prevailed.37
At the end of August, The Constant Sinner headed to Atlantic City for a
break-in performance. So many locals and out-of-towners clamored for
tickets that the theater filled aisles with foldingO chairs and 1packed two rows
of standees into the back. The press was favorable, declaring that The Con-
stant Sinner was "underworld material from start to finish and Miss West han-
dles her role with surety and a sufficiency of wise-cracks that provide
laughter with frequency." The next week in New Brighton, critics were less
kind. One decried the dialogue as "vile and foul," although he conceded that
West achieved a unique genuineness: "She seems to have a sense of pace, of
something like dramatic rhythm that makes her plays take on a semblance of
something o
like life."38
On September 14, 1931, The Constant Sinner opened in Manhattan to a ca-
pacity crowd of firstnighters, Mae West fans, and thrill seekers. And, critics
noted, all West had to do was make an entrance and the audience applauded
exuberantly. While the plot deviated little from the novel, the play lacked
the book's more serious tone, relying more heavily on Westian double en-
tendres and witticisms. Cutting a deal with two small-time white hoodlums,
Babe attests, "I never turn down anything but the bedcovers." When a detec-
tive warns Babe she is in a "hot spot," she retorts, "I can always handle hot
spots." Later she complains, "I opened my door the other morning and five
racketeers fell in. I wouldn't mind so much but two of them was dead." And
of course, she issued her trademark invitation: "Come up sometime, boys,"
she beckons to a group of male admirers. "I'll tell your fortune." It sent her
fans into convulsions of laughter. One journalist wrote, "They greet every
suggestive
OO
line with O giggles,
OO
gurgles,
' O O '
shrieks and other strange
O
noises not
usually heard in civilized society."39
Not surprisingly, some of the most celebrated scenes occurred in Babe's
boudoir, adorned with paintings of famous women including Cleopatra,
Madame Du Barry, and Catherine the Great. "She kept the biggest standing
army in the world," Babe remarks, admiring the Russian empress. "She kept
them standinges outside her bedroom door." Her ogallery J also includes a rpor-
trait of Othello and Desdemona. When a Oguest calls Othello a "dinge," O '
Babe
vehemently objects. She insists, "He's not a dinge, he's a Moor." With West's
trademark murmur, it sounded less like a nationality and more like the
French word for love—amour.40
In many ways, West's play was even more rebellious than her novel.
While Money Johnson's scenes are few, he is far more powerful and re-
spected in the play. Onstage, Johnson has not only built a gambling and boot-
legging
oo o empirer but owns most of Harlem's nightclubs.
o Both blacks and
whites respect his power and authority. Although some whites disparage
him, they also clamor to do business with him, for Money and money tran-
scend race. In his dealings, he is forceful and straightforward; he does not
138 M A E * W E S T
hesitate to speak his mind and give orders to whites. When two white gang-
sters approach him to back a scheme, he forcefully warns them to keep Babe
away from drug dealing: "Now git dat into yo' head an' keep it dere. Ah ain't
tellin' you twice." The novel's Johnson is mute during his struggle for his life
with Wayne Baldwin; in the play he verbally strikes out, calling the murder-
ous blue blood a "Goddam Ofay." It was bold: "Ofay" was the black commu-
nity's in-group term for a foe.But Johnson is not the only character who
comments on white society. Mister Gay, when cornered by Charlie Yates
about Babe's previous trysts with black men, protests, "Dis ain't Harlem—
dis is downtown an' mixin' up wid white folks yo' gotta be a little careful." It
reflected a very real situation, for African-American people could not trust
whites and had to be cautious in all their dealings with white society. It also
demonstrated that West at least recognized this reality.41
Although West's play perpetuated racism, for the time it proved ex-
tremely controversial. On opening night, West received several ovations and
curtain calls; still, most reviewers blasted The Constant Sinner. The New York
Herald Tribune complained, "She is an atrocious playwright and appearing in
her own dramas is her only failing as an actress." Several insisted that The
Constant Sinner was dull, probably in hopes of undermining West's sensation-
alized box office potential. Almost all denounced it for what one declared its
"depravity and degradation." The New York Journal snorted that it moved
from "the gutter to the sewer," and others decried it for its "filth.""Seldom,
come to think of it," wrote the New York Times reviewer, "has fouler talk been
heard on the Broadway stage."42
While The Constant Sinner committed some of the sins found in SEX, its
dialogue was, in general, more frank. But it was not so much the language
and salacious double entendres, which one critic claimed the audience heard
even when they were clearly not there, that upset the reviewers. It was the
theme of miscegenation
o
that brought
o
the harshest condemnation. It was such
a forbidden subject that the conservative dailies declined to even mention it,
one stiffly noting that "the idea is generally considered a shocking one, not
generally bandied about on the stage." More outspoken reviewers virulently
attacked the theme of racial intermixing. o
The Standard Union maintained that
the Harlem Breakfast Club scenes featuring interracial couples "turn the
stomach." Hearst's American declared the play a "tawdry slumming party" that
focused on the "nauseous theme of miscegenation." It was more than just the
"filth" that SEX had been; The Constant Sinner's radical interracial love affair
induced feelings of physical illness in these white reviewers.43
Some in the African-American community publicly acknowledged The
Constant Sinner's volatile message. While Harlem's local papers did not re-
THE S U B J E C T OF THE D R E A M 139
view it, the New York Amsterdam News, the community's most popular paper,
did hail the appearances made by several of the African-American players in
Mae's production. Floyd Snelson of the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the nation's
leading African-American dailies, pronounced The Constant Sinner "the clever-
est piece of artistry to be expected from a woman of the Caucasian race." He
praised West as a "constant admirer of the negro" and for providing roles for
so many African-American performers. In his opinion, the play explored the
most important problems facing American society: race relations and in-
equality. He pronounced the Harlem Breakfast Club scene, which had of-
fended many white reviewers, to be the play's high point. He urged the
Courier's readers to patronize The Constant Sinner: "I glory in the spunk of the
'world's ogreatest lioness of human hearts';' that she has demonstrated her
mettle to govern." In his later years, Lorenzo Tucker agreed that by upsetting
racial conventions West had made an extremely rebellious statement. He
praised her support of African Americans, insisting that "we have to look at
folks like her with raised eyes and give them credit for their contributions."44
Inevitably, West's exploration of interracial mixing reinvigorated the
city's self-appointed custodians of morality. Ever vigilant, John Sumner had
been monitoring her activities. In November 1930, when Babe Gordon first
O -^ J 7
rolled off the presses, he received several complaints about the book and im-
mediately secured his own copy. When the play version made its way onto
the stage, he diligently attended a performance; he reported that it was "dis-
gusting throughout." The newly formed Conference Board of Theater,
O O O J '
Broadway's self-regulatory body, attempted to respond to the mounting con-

cerns over The Constant Sinner. Playwrights' representatives charged censor-
ship and walked out, bringing the board to collapse. At Sumner's urging,
authorities dispatched officers to the Royale. After they viewed a showing,
they mandated deletion of only two lines. Probably fearing that police action
would only result in publicity for The Constant Sinner, the NYPD informed
Sumner that they believed a raid would be unwise.45
For a time, the production rode on West's enormous and growing popu-
larity. She had finally achieved star status. New York theatergoers culled
lines from her performances and made them a part of the city's speech. Ac-
cording to newspaper reports, mobs gathered whenever she appeared in
public. Her bodyguards fought off admirers, and even a few detractors de-
termined to reform the lady of the stage's streets.
West had been transformed into not only a celebrity but also a symbol.
Since the controversy over SEX, several New York performers had mimicked
her in their acts. She had also become a favorite among both white and black
female impersonators; many a Mae West took first place at the city's drag
140 * M A E * W E S T
balls. African-American film actress and performer Nina Mae McKinney

incorporated a Mae West characterization into her act, and black audi-
ences loved it. McKinney added another layer of subversion to Westian
image. In her routine, McKinney became a black woman enacting a white
woman enacting o
a black woman enacting o
a white woman. It was a house of
mirrors, a parody of a parody, and it made the mythical Mae West even
more subversive.
As West's popularity increased, fans demanded more information about
the star. In classic fashion, she obliged with a trail of confusing and contradic-
tory statements. To one tabloid reporter, she insisted that the characters in
The Constant Sinner were real; she confided that one often visited her in her
dressing room. Although she refused to confirm or deny her links to Babe
Gordon's lifestyle, she did admit, "I have to feel what I portray on stage."
Conversely, in the New York Times, she lashed out at those who insisted that
her work drew on her own experiences. She adamantly denied that she had
any firsthand knowledge of the world of Babe Gordon. "I do not drink, I do
not smoke," West insisted. "I have my books, my writing, my friends—that
is my private life." In a short speech at each curtain call, she renounced any
relationship to Babe, contending that she preferred to stay home rather than
partake of New York's wild nightlife. The New York Times quipped, "She did
not, however, confirm reports that she would act next year for the Chil-
dren's Theater in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."46
West's contradictory statements had become characteristic of her star
persona, forcing both her fans and her adversaries into endless circles of
speculation on her alleged wickedness. They also served to generate public-
ity, and by October, the production needed a boost. Despite a strong early
showing, o
audiences soon dwindled. Several factors combined to hurt the
show. Foremost was the deepening Depression; in 1931 the unemployment
rate had reached almost 16 percent. Fewer people could afford to attend the
theater, and even though it was early in the season, several Broadway shows
had already closed. Theaters, not only in New York but also in other parts of
the country, went dark. A number of show business impresarios, including
the Great Ziegfeld and Arthur Hammerstein, lost their fortunes. The Shu-
berts ended up in receivership, their stock practically worthless. Babe's ad-
vice to a luckless hustler, Cokey Jenny, came in handy: "It's the depression,
why don't you cut your prices?" Soon, most of Broadway did just that in
hopes of saving shows that had survived into late fall.47
The Constant Sinner was also affected by a shift in American attitudes. The
mood of the city, as well as of the nation, had changed. For many, the party
of the 19208 was over. The economic crisis hit Manhattan especially hard.
THE S U B J E C T OF THE D R E A M 141
Jobless men stood on corners selling apples. Streets were filled with home-
less and desperate people begging for food or jobs. The after-hours spirit
was dying, and many nightclubs closed their doors. For many, slumming was
no longer a taste of the unknown; poverty threatened to become a reality.
West could no longer count on the limousine crowd's unlimited support.
Additionally, many New Yorkers, no matter how jaded and worldly, prob-
ably shared the critics' objection to the show's interracial nature. Miscegena-
tion was a touchy subject bound to make even some of West's diehard fans,
most of them white, uncomfortable and perhaps even angry. And while The
Constant Sinner's message was obscured, both challenging and conveying
racist notions, any rejection of rigid racial norms was considered unaccept-
able by many whites. The Constant Sinner never really caught fire, and on No-
vember 4, after only sixty-four performances, its New York run ended.
But West was not finished. She secured a one-week stint at Washington, o '
D.C.'s, Belasco Theater. As promised, Lorenzo Tucker assumed the role of
Money Johnson. To head off advance opposition, she used Givot's name in
her publicity. As residents of the nation's capital eagerly prepared to wel-
come Mae West and her show, the Pittsburgh Courier's Floyd Snelson wrote,
"Hope that Herbert Hoover gets a chance to see the devilish blonde."48
On November 2 ?, when The Constant Sinner made its Washington debut,
J
' o '
the Belasco was packed with "one of the largest first night audiences of the sea-
son." This time the miscegenation that existed only as fiction in the pages of
Babe Gordon became a reality when Mae West and Lorenzo Tucker embraced
and kissed onstage.
o
Througho
theater,' West had actualized contact between the
races forbidden in society. Unanimously, reviewers gave the production an icy
reception, condemning its salaciousness, with one commenting that "the inter-
mixture of race in this play is not a pleasant quality." But they also noted that
the audience roared with laughter,
o '
offeringo up
r
"catcalls" and "lustyJ ogrunts."
Tickets for the rest of the week had been almost sold out.49
The next day, the theater's management, sensing problems, ordered West
to cut some of the play. The situation looked grim as complaints about the
show poured into the district attorney's office. That evening, Assistant Dis-
trict Attorney Michael F. Keogh and three police officers attended the per-
formance. Reportedly, Keogh was so outraged at the play's "lewd and
lascivious" nature and what he claimed was an "objectionable intermingling
of race" that he considered closingo
the show even before its final curtain call.
Fearing such action would incite a disturbance among appreciative fans, he
simply confiscated the script and departed.
The next morning, Keogh's boss, District Attorney Leo A. Rover, or-
dered the play closed and threatened the theater's manager, the cast, and the
142 M A E*+ WEST
crew with prosecution if they attempted another performance. While

Rover's official report skirted the interracial issue, reporters, both black and
white, believed it was the impetus behind his actions. Some Washingtonians
were not only opposed to seeing racial intermixing onstage but also horri-
fied that such fraternizingO occurred backstage
O
among O
the play's
1 J
cast. Integra-
O
tion was intolerable to most southerners—and Washington, D. C., O ' '
remained, after all, a southern city. Authorities there would not permit such
a rebellious defiance of strictly defined racial segregation. One local newspa-
per columnist denounced the city's race-conscious moralists as hypocrites,
charging that, when securely distant from their Washingtonian homes, they
"make up the slumming parties that seek out precisely what Miss West in her
latest play accommodatingly brings to their very doorsteps."50
While enjoying the races at a track just outside the city, West received
word that the DA had shut down her play. She also learned more disturbing
news: A lynch mob was searching for Tucker. Her defiance of the color bar-
rier had occurred during a period of heightened racial violence. In the pre-
ceding year, the number of lynchings had reached a thirty-year high; the area
around Washington had been the site of several violent murders of African-
American men. Additionally, newspapers chronicled the trial of the Scotts-
boro Nine, a group of African-American teenagers falsely accused of raping
two white women. West called the cast together, paid them for two shows,
and arranged for them to return immediately to New York. She took Tucker
aside, warned him about the threats against his life, and gave him an extra
7
O ' O
two weeks' salary. Tucker checked into a black Washington hotel under an
assumed name and stayed there until he could safely get out of town.51
The Constant Sinner had been a disappointment. Its New York run was
mediocre, and the short tour had been a dangerous fiasco. While still trying
' O J O
to obtain out-of-town engagements for the play, West signed a contract with
Macaulay to turn Diamond Lil into a novel. But in early June, just as she had
secured a Chicago booking for The Constant Sinner, West was happily side-
tracked by a call from Paramount Studios. George Raft, starring as a young
gangster in Scarf ace, had become Tinsel Town's latest matinee idol. He was
busily preparing for his next film, Night After Night, and had convinced the
studio that Mae West was a perfect fit for one of the film's roles. But the
question remained: Could Paramount afford Diamond Lil? S2
* S * E * V * E * N *
Good Night to
the Dichotomies
There is more to the rapid growth of Miss Mae West's public

than meets the first glance, and it is more than hips, hips, hur-
ray.j . . . Diamond Lil is Victorian on the other side of the
fence and the fence is up, but the spirit of the ladies may also
be up. They may refuse to stay on their side. In that case it is
again good night to the dichotomies.
— Chicago Daily Tribune, December 7, 1933
eorge Raft had been cast as Night After Night's Joe Anton, an ex-
G boxer with underworld connections who runs a speakeasy. Hop-

ing to capitalize on the handsome actor's reputation as a New
York tough guy, Paramount sought an actress who could bring
authenticity to the role of Anton's ex-flame, the colorful Maudie Triplett.
While West seemed a natural, Adolph Zukor, Paramount's founder, was ap-
prehensive, later explaining, "No one believed that the Mae West of stage
could be transferred almost intact to the screen." The studio had considered
Texas Guinan for the part, but she was fifty and in failing health. Raft, prob-
ably with Owney Madden's help, continued to lobby for Mae West. For
West, it was a chance to enter Hollywood through the back door, slipping
past Will Hays, who had banned her from moviedom.1
In early June 1932, Paramount began pressuring West to sign immedi-
ately. Determined to make them pay well, she engaged the William Morris
Agency, which negotiated a generous contract. Paramount provided trans-
portation to Los Angeles and a salary of $4,000 a week while filming with
$2o,ooo guaranteed up-front money. Although she was billed fourth, her
take was the highest among the cast; the star, George Raft, earned only
$ 191.69 a week. West canceled The Constant Sinner's Chicago dates and on
H3
MAE
144 mae
MAE 8 8* WEST
westtt
W EST
June 16, 1932, departed with Timony, a secretary, and a maid on a train
bound for California.
The final leg of her trip across the western deserts was hot and tiresome.
Not once did she emerge from her private car; she claimed she spent most of
the time under a fan with an ice bag pressed to her forehead. When she ar-
rived, after traveling for four long days, she was greeted by a William Mor-
ris agent, Murray Feil, Paramount representatives, and several reporters.
Although she was miffed at the absence of photographers, she provided jour-
nalists with some choice comments. When asked about Broadway's recent
slump, she attributed it to "bum shows." And she put Tinsel Town on notice:
"I'm not a little ogirl from a little town makingo good
o
in a bigo town,"' she
boasted. "I'm a bigo ogirl from a bigtotown making
oo
good in a little town."2
West stopped briefly at Paramount, where she was reunited with A La
Broadway's William Le Baron, who had become one of the studio's most suc-
cessful producers. At first, Le Baron did not recognize her, but he soon re-
called her as the "peppy vivacious 'tomboy' " who had rewritten her part in his
play almost twenty years before. After looking over the lot, she retired to a
two-bedroom apartment at the Ravenswood. Only a mile from the studio, the
Ravenswood was reminiscent of New York City's residential hotels. A high-
rise topped with a large neon sign, it had an elegant lobby, desk clerk, door-
man, and switchboard. According to one legend, William Morris first
attempted to book a suite at the swankier El Royale, where George Raft lived,
but,' learningOit was for the notorious Mae West,' the management
O
refused.3
With Timony in the spare bedroom, West settled comfortably into her
new apartment. Although it was decorated with simple furnishings, she was
delighted. The apartment's number, 611, when added up equaled eight,
which she believed was her lucky number. The studio had not completed
Night After Night's script, so she worked on her Diamond Lil novel, went
sightseeing with Timony, and patronized prizefights. Almost immediately,
journalists noted her peculiar detachment, observing that as the boxers
pummeled each other, she sat, staring, completely emotionless. "If she is en-
joying the punches, the world never knows it," Movie Classic reported. It was
an effective performance by Mae West, celebrity—a public demeanor that
demonstrated reserve and rock-solid control.4
Tinsel Town received Mae West stiffly. She was never spotted at celebrity
functions and, by most accounts, was ignored by Hollywood's elite, who
were embarrassed by her rowdy reputation. The Los Angeles Times's Muriel
Babcock informed readers that New York critics disparagedI O
West's actingO
and that one had characterized her fans as "the lowest form of animal life."
Although Babcock conceded that in person West was much less "menacing"
GOOD N I G H T TO THE D I C H O T O M I E S 145
than she had expected, she wagered that Broadway's bad girl was not cut out
for films. Other Hollywood insiders felt the same. Movie Classic remarked,
"Hollywood wonders if she will be a sensation in Hollywood where sex is a
trademark not a novelty."5
As in the past, West remained behind a buffer of close confidants. She
made a few acquaintances in the boxing community but remained aloof from
show business types. Her isolation from familiar New York surroundings
gave Timony, who now served as her personal and financial manager, more
opportunities to dominate her. He shadowed her everywhere; one journalist
characterized him as a "devoted police dog." While West maintained that
1 O
their relationship was purely platonic, Hollywood whispered that they were
husband and wife.
Sometime that summer, West added a new member to her inner circle,
an old acquaintance from Chicago named Harry Voiler. He had been Texas
Guinan's lover, her manager, and co-owner of her Windy City nightclub. But
his fame there derived from his underworld ties; he had been a member of
Detroit's notorious Purple Gang, had served time for armed robbery, and
maintained ties to Al Capone. Somehow he had made his way to California.
No doubt, West knew exactly who she was dealing with and probably hoped
to benefit from Voiler's underworld connections. Amongo other services,' he
could provide her with protection. He quickly became a trusted confidant,
acting as West's driver and often escorting her to and from the studio.6
As West waited, Paramount wrestled with Night After Night. In July, the
studio replaced the first director, David Burton, with a second, Archie
Mayo. Dissatisfied with the script, Paramount assigned twelve different writ-
ers to rework it. Le Baron continually revised the cast list. The studio's slug-
gishness astonished West, and she grew impatient. She had already pocketed
$20,000, but Paramount's deal was less lucrative as she remained idle. She
feared she had made a mistake.
Her worries were confirmed in August when she finally received her first
look at a script.
-
According
T
to
o
West,' she "hit the overhead lights."
O
The writers
had conceived of Maudie Triplett as a pathetic working-class lush, a former
"looker" gone to seed. For years, West had carefully crafted her stage presence
and was determined not to compromise in any way. Just as shooting began, she
informed studio heads that regardless of her contract, she would not play such
a demeaning role. Her actions brought another halt to Night After Night.
According to Adolph Zukor, the entire studio brass attempted to con-
vince her to accept the role as it was. Yet she remained steadfast. The longer
she held out, the more desperate Paramount became, particularly studio ex-
ecutive Al Kaufman, who believed that West, while risky, could be a huge
146 M A E * WEST
success. In an effort to persuade West to stick with the film, on August 17,
her thirty-ninth birthday, he treated her and Timony to a meal at a tony
restaurant. At the evening's end, after listening to Kaufman's pitch, West
reached into her handbag and fished out a check for $ 20,000. Handing it to
him, she announced plans to depart for New York the next day.
According
toto West,' Kaufman refused the check and declared his intCn-
tion to hold her to her contract. That night,
o '
she claimed,' William Le Baron
telephoned, offering her the opportunity to rewrite her part. Zukor recalled
testing a scene the next day. First they shot it from the original script. Next
they tried West's changes. Zukor recalled that "she directed herself accord-
ing to her own script and ideas. Plainly her own characterization was much
better." West's reconception of Maudie was a go, and Paramount sweetened
her deal with an extra $ 16,000. 7
West's first clash with the studio was just a hint of what was to come. Mae
West would find herself repeatedly pitted against the men who dominated
filmmaking. In August 1932, West was a Hollywood newcomer who mar-
veled at the differences between cinema and stage. She was flabbergasted by
O O J
the studio's wastefulness, amazed at the expensive multiple takes that it

seemed to her would be needless with proper rehearsals. Regardless of stu-
dio practices, she would not allow herself to give a substandard perfor-
mance. A tireless worker since childhood, she was a perfectionist with
definite ideas about technique and delivery. Over the years, she had wrestled
control from others, primarily male directors and writers, to assert com-
plete ownership of her fictionalized self. The male-dominated studio system
presented a new challenge. Traditionally, directors shape their films, their
control being so absolute that many cinema theorists contend they are films'
"auteurs." As Zukor rapidly discerned, however, West had been accustomed
to directing herself and was not willing to surrender that control to anyone.
Of course, Archie Mayo had different ideas. A director since 1916, he
knew what he wanted in his films and what he expected from actors and ac-
tresses. George Raft recalled Mayo as domineering and ill-tempered, and
West's relationship with Mayo was definitely strained. The two clashed over
her first scene. An experienced comedian, West was determined to squeeze
as many laughs out of her lines as possible. Concerned with timing, she de-
manded that Mayo change the scene's ending and have the camera follow her
up a long flight of stairs to maximize the effect of her last line. Mayo refused.
West remained defiant of Mayo. After her first day on the set, she decided
that the film's pace was too slow and her languid style would further weigh it
down. For the next shoot, she deliberately picked up her tempo, playing
Maudie fast and loud. If Mayo resisted, it went unrecorded. But newspapers
did report that Alison Skip worth, who was a veteran actress of the legitimate
stage and played prim schoolmarm Miss Mabel Jellyman, protested, lecturing
West, "You forget—I'm an actress." Mae shot back, "I'll keep your secret."8
Shooting and feuding wrapped up in late September, and on October 14,
1932, Night After Night was ready to make its debut. The film's ad campaign
invited fans to meet "dangerous shady people who live on the outside on the
naked edge of the law." One of these was Joe Anton, a "third rate pug" who
has made a fortune as owner of a luxurious Manhattan nightclub. But Anton
finds his wealth empty and aspires to better himself and win the heart of a
society woman, Jerry Healy. Anxious to acquire refinement, he takes lan-
guage and deportment lessons from Miss Jellyman. While Anton attempts
to erase his past, his old sweetheart, the gregarious Maudie Triplett, blows
into town.9
Maudie first shows up outside of Anton's speakeasy, surrounded by a
group of admiring men. She pounds her fist on the door, and when a voice
inside booms, "Who is it?" she tosses her head and laughs, "The fairy
princess, you mug." Then she strolls, hand on hip, into the club. Parading
over to the hatcheck, she greets the African-American woman who takes her
fur familiarly. "Hello, honey. How's business?" Maudie asks. "Been insulted
lately?" As she hands over her wrap, the hatcheck exclaims, "Goodness what
diamonds!" Maudie confides, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie."
Maudie then surprises Joe, who is dining with Jerry Healy and Miss Jelly-
man. She proceeds, innocently, to betray his working-class roots. Slapping
Miss Jellyman on the back, she shouts to Anton, "Kiss me, you dog." Embar-
rassed, he shuttles Jerry off, leaving Maudie and Miss Jellyman to share a
bottle of champagne. They immediately bond, and the next morning finds
them recoveringo from hangovers
o
in the doorman's bed. While Maudie is
spry and ready for another round, Miss Jellyman languishes with an ice pack.
Maudie urgesO
the prim
1
teacher to Ogo into business with her. Taken aback,
Miss Jellyman, thinking Maudie is a prostitute, praises her for having "pro-
tected our Ogood women." Maudie retorts,' "Listen dearie,' youJ
got me all
O
wrong," and reveals that she owns a chain of beauty salons. As the film
closes, Miss Jellyman agrees to sign on as a hostess in Maudie's "Institute du
Beaut," and Anton has won Jerry Healy's heart.
In her first brief moments on the screen, West introduced the nation's
filmgoers to the major themes that had long dominated her work: critiques
of the dominant culture's assumptions about class, gender, and race. For one
of the first times, an American film actress dared to use an authentic work-
ing-class accent rather than the unconvincing blue-collar dialects or upper-
crust stage affectations common in early talking films. West's proud
148 M A E * WEST
working-class consciousness fit the Depression-weary audience's mood, and

her proletarian Brooklynese revealed Maudie's class affiliation without
shame or embarrassment. While Joe struggles to transcend his background,
J OO O '
Maudie accepts hers, even revels in it. She warns him against denying his
class,' congratulating
o o
him for cancelingo his sessions with Miss Jlellyman
J
and
for sensibly discovering that he was "all right in the first place." Maudie has
keen insight into life. She both knows and enjoys herself. As the film's hero,
she rescues Miss Jellyman from her dull existence and proves that wisdom
really lies with "regular folks," not the elite.
Maudie's class identity is interwoven with messages about gender. Her
class affiliation allows her to defy norms for respectable middle- and upper-
class women. She is rough and unrefined, refusing to bow to male authority.
Jerry Healy immediately admires her, and Miss Jellyman is quickly won over.
West's revisions transformed Maudie from a dumpy, cast-off lover pining for
an old beau into a bold and independent woman who has plenty of male at-
tention. "Do you believe in love at first sight?" asks Miss Jellyman. "I don't
know, but it sure saves time," Maudie replies.10
In each scene, Maudie bucked gender expectations. Her skintight gowns
proudly displayed West's ample proportions, an aberration from the still
popular stick-thin flapper figure. Cigarette in hand, swaggering through her
scenes, West undermined assumptions about delicate femininity with her
heavy-handed mannerisms. Many have interpreted this as a masculine layer
in her performance. West certainly was influenced by male performers and
had impersonated men since her earliest years. Her retort to the doorman,
that she is "the fairy princess," suggests, in gay slang, that Maudie may be a
man in drag. Some contemporary viewers clearly saw it that way: Vanity Fair's
George Davis declared, "I love you, Miss West, because YOU are the great-
est female impersonator of all time."11
While West's style challenged gender assumptions, reactions to it also re-
vealed that a patriarchal society could only interpret a forceful and strong
woman in terms of masculinity. Such explanations denied and resisted the
liberatingo female image o
that West had created. Maudie's boldness and brazen
sexuality could also be viewed as thoroughly womanish, an outgrowth of
West's blues consciousness. Although West did not perform any songs in this
film, her role as the blues singer was signified. When Maudie first appears,
the soundtrack switches from a light, orchestral ballad to the distinctive wail
of the blues, cementing Maudie (and Mae) to an undercurrent of blackness
reinforced by her interactions with the African-American hatcheck woman.
With "Been insulted lately?" Maudie signifies their shared experiences as ex-
ploited working-class women who not only suffered rudeness but sexual "in-
suit," another term for rape. On another level, Maudie's remark is a refer-
ence to the verbal and sometimes physical violence of racism that black
women often endured when dealing with whites. Furthermore, Maudie and
the hatcheck are bonded in a conversation that somewhat clouds racial lines.
When the hatcheck admires her diamonds,' Maudie shares her secret,' engag- oo
ingo in a distinctlyJ black verbal exchange.
o
As Maudie testifies that "Goodness
had nothingtoto do with it," '
and swaggers
oo
off,' someone utters,' "Um-hum." It
is unclear whether it is Maudie or the hatcheck. Regardless, using this com-
mon African-American response of affirmation is a subversive technique that
undermines Maudie's whiteness.
GeorgeO
Raft claimed that when he first saw the hatcheck scene, he knew
7
West would be a hit, and all indicators pointed to the potential success of
Night After Night. Even so, the studio encountered several challenges in pro-
moting the film. With a production bearing such a cosmopolitan tone, Para-
mount publicity had to find a way to court small-town and rural audiences.
While they encouraged exhibitors to play up the film's underworld angle
and Raft's Ogenuineness,' theyJ also devised contests that encouraged O
fans to
correct the bad grammar and poor manners of working-class characters.
O 1 O
West's well-tarnished reputation and her unusual persona presented yet

another dilemma. Paramount needed to exploit the film's risque nature
within the bounds of respectability, and West's record lent itself to the for-
mer much better than the latter. Following a strategy that she had originated
O OJ O
to promote her stage career, they distanced the character from the star. Press
releases described Maudie as "low born, brutal," while emphasizing that the
real Mae West differed greatly from her character. Publicists insisted that
West had come from a respectable theatrical family and was not only an ac-
complished actress but a producer, playwright, and novelist as well.12
Additionally, Paramount tried to push West as a standard Hollywood in-
genue. West was almost forty, but for fans she became vaguely thirty. Ob-
scuringo her ageo
was one thing;o'
dealingo
with her unfashionable curves was
another. To persuade cinemagoers that the real Mae West was remarkably
typical, press releases documented studio bosses' surprise when they discov-
ered that beneath all her padding, Diamond Lil was remarkably petite. Ac-
cording to one report, as studio heads looked on, West stepped onto a scale
and weighed in at a mere 119 pounds. It was important that filmgoers, espe-
cially those in America's heartland, distinguish between Mae West and her
larger-than-life
o
characters. It would be far too threateningo to both the box
office and Will Hays if the public mistook Mae for Maudie.
When reminiscing about Night After Night, George Raft was fond of saying
that Mae West "stole everything but the cameras." Indeed, audiences howled
150 * M A E * W E S T
at West's every line. At the premiere, it was obvious that despite her limited
screen time,7 she dominated the entire film. Although o
the film's debut was a
star-studded event, West, dissatisfied with Night After Night's quality, skipped
it. Her concern was somewhat quelled when Murray Feil, who had attended
the premiere, reported that even the jaded Hollywood crowd had laughed
long and hard at her performance.13
While Night After Night received lukewarm reviews and several reviewers
chided the other performers for their lethargic performances, almost all
critics raved about Mae West. The conservative New York Times rated her
"quite amusing." Motion Picture Herald heartily praised her contribution, con-
tending that she "came near stealing the show" and noting that her "peculiar
personality stands out vividly on the screen." Variety congratulated West for
her "auspicious start" and declared that her lines were "unmistakably her
own. It is doubtful if anyone else could write it just that way." The trade
sheet counseled the film industry that "it wouldn't be taking a chance to
shoot the works on her from now on."14
Paramount was already convinced. On October 6, before the film's re-
lease, they signed West to a lucrative contract. It permitted her almost total
creative control, allowing her to either write, revise, or select her scripts,
unusual since contract players normally played whatever parts the studio as-
signed them. West was also guaranteed two films a year and, according to
some reports, $ 100,000 annually in addition to generous royalties for all
scripts that she authored. Paramount assigned her to bungalow number one
on "Peacock Alley," the area housing the studio's biggest stars, including
J ' O OO ' O
Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard, and—West's new next door neigh-

bor—Marlene Dietrich.
It is possible, as Variety intimated, that Paramount had all along intended
to ease Mae West into films despite Will Hays's edict. The studio was des-
perate for new blood. By the fall of 1932, the entire film industry had fallen
into the Depression's grip. In October, when West first hit movie screens,
almost every major studio was in debt, Paramount sustaining its greatest
losses ever and runningto$ 2 i million in the red. West seemed like a ogood bet,'
but it remained uncertain whether she could help the floundering studio.15
Paramount immediately organized a promotional campaign for their lat-
est acquisition, and early on, they got some free press. On October i 3, the
day before Night After Night was released, local newspapers reported that
West had been a victim of a holdup. Reportedly, on the evening of Septem-
ber 28, while West and Voiler sat in her car outside the Ravenswood, a man
approached, stuck a revolver through her open window, and commanded,
"Toss out that poke and those rocks." West handed over her purse with
$3,400 in cash and a diamond bracelet, necklace, and ring worth over
$ 16,000. The gunman then muttered, "Forget what I look like," crossed the
street, and disappeared into a getaway car.
West immediately alerted the Los Angeles police, who began a secret in-
vestigation. Two days later, an anonymous tip led them to a vacant lot where
they recovered West's purse sans her cash and jewels. By mid-October, with
no leads, detectives encouraged West to go public. She pleaded for the re-
turn of her diamonds,' all gifts
o
from admirers,' and offered to "make a deal"
with the robbers. Harry Voiler, using his connections, negotiated for the
robbers to surrender her jewels in exchange for a $^,ooo ransom. West re-
fused. She even rejected their offer to lower it to $3,000. In the meantime,
while authorities continued their unsuccessful probe, the unsolved robbery
enveloped the star in underworld mystique. Later, some charged that the
jewel heist had been a studio publicity stunt. West vehemently denied it. 16
Jewel thieves were not West's only problem. Learning of Paramount's long-
term contract with Mae West, Hays deluged Adolph Zukor with memoran-
dums remindingo him that Diamond Lil remained banned and warningo that any J
attempt to produce it would result in drastic action. Zukor repeatedly assured
Hays of his intention to cooperate. Meanwhile, Paramount's publicity depart-
ment announced that West was composing a new piece, Ruby Red. The Hays
office remained suspicious that West was recycling Diamond Lil under another
name. They had good reason to be leery. Sometime in 1931, long before West
had signed up for Night After Night, Paramount had purchased the film rights to
Diamond Lil, and Paramount's production staff was indeed proceeding with it.
By early November, West, assisted by Paramount screenwriters, began
script revisions. The studio had already assigned director Lowell Sherman to
the project. A member of an old theatrical family, Sherman had worked as an
actor with film rpioneer D. W Griffith before turningo to directing. o With
William Le Baron as producer, Paramount was clearly serious about bringing
Diamond Lil to the screen.
By November 10, James Wingate, who now headed Hays's Studio Rela-
tions Department, secured a copy of Ruby Red. The former director of the
New York Department of Education's Film Censorship Division, Wingate
was known for his indulgence of the studios. After reading West's script, he
telegrammed Hays confirming that it was Diamond Lil but, in his estimation,
could be acceptably revised. The chief censor remained unconvinced, in-
structing underlings to meet confidentially with the studio and demand that
Paramount drop the project.17
Paramount continued to ignore Hays and released more assurances to the
press that West was not working on Diamond Lil. The studio's tactics were
152 * M A E * WEST
not unusual. Although Hollywood had been under Will Hays's watch for al-
most twelve years, he had been fairly powerless over filmmakers. During a
series of Hollywood scandals in the 19208, studio heads had appointed him
to assure the public they were committed to clean entertainment and self-
regulation. They paid his salary and, in turn, often ignored his dictates.
Throughout his tenure, Hays had been the target of criticism, particularly
from moralists who decried what they contended was the increasing sala-
ciousness of Hollywood film. In 1930, after pressure from the Catholic
Church, other religious denominations, and several social agencies, the Hays
Office adopted strict standards known as the Production Code. Authored by
Father Daniel Lord and Martin Quigley, a devout Catholic and owner of the
influential Motion Picture Daily, the Production Code of 1930 banned most
depictions of sex, violence, interracial relationships, drugs, alcohol, and nu-
merous other topics. But Hays still had little power—outside of persua-
sion—to enforce the Code. Studios habitually disregarded it. Such was the
case with Diamond Lil; Paramount was determined to proceed with the pro-
ject regardless of Hays's opposition.
Hays remained equally determined and, at the end of November, held a
face-to-face meetingo with Zukor and several other studio chiefs. Unable to
convince Zukor to abandon Diamond Lil, Hays finally elicited several conces-
sions from Paramount's founder. Zukor agreed to make no reference to Dia-
mond Lil in the film's publicity, excise all references to white slavery, and cut
the lyrics of "Easy Rider" and "A Guy What Takes His Time," another blues
song West had added. In a weak attempt to distance the film further from
Diamond Lil, West renamed her character Lady Lou and eventually retitled
the film She Done Him Wrong.18
By the time Paramount reached an agreement with Hays, She Done Him
Wrong was in its second week of filming. Anxious to forge ahead and proba-
bly to undermine any other action Hays might pursue, the studio had moved
expeditiously. Paramount's fortunes were rapidly dissolving; they needed to
get West's film into the theaters. Mae claimed that she devised a cost-cutting
strategy,
oy 7 insisting
o that the cast rehearse one week before shooting o and
promising the studio that filming would be completed in three weeks. De-
spite West's boasts, abbreviated production schedules were common during
these bleak economic times; by mid-December, Warner Bros, had mandated
that all films be shot in no more than eighteen days. She Done Him Wrong's
hurry-up mode may have been as much Paramount's idea as West's.
For her supporting cast, West had a mixture of old friends, seasoned pic-
ture players, and a few newcomers. As Rita, transformed into a Russian by
studio bosses eyeing the Latin American market, West recruited Rafaela Ot-
tiano, who had played the part onstage. In the role of Chick Clark, the studio
cast Owen Moore, a silent film star and Mary Pickford's ex-husband. Veteran
actor Noah Berry Sr. played Gus Jordan, and film heartthrob Gilbert Roland
was recruited for Serge Stanieff, the film's equivalent to Pablo Juarez. For this
version, West added a new character, Pearl, a black maid played by Louise
Beavers, a former singer who had already appeared in several films.
Finding the right actor to play Captain Cummings proved difficult. West
rejected all those suggested by the studio. She claimed that one day, leaving a
meeting with studio heads, she spotted a strikingly handsome man walking
across the lot and remarked, "If he can talk, I'll take him." It was Gary Grant,
and he not only possessed an elegant English accent but was also an experi-
enced actor. Even though he had appeared in more than half a dozen films,
West would always claim she had discovered him.19
West oversaw each detail of the production, even the wardrobe. She had
revised the script so the story took place over a short span of time and in
few locations, saving money on sets and on supporting characters' cos-
tumes. But West was determined that her ogowns be elaborate and eye- J
catching. Paramount's head costumer, Travis Banton (coincidentally DA
Joab Banton's nephew) was working abroad, and the studio assigned his as-
sistant, a young designer named Edith Head, to design West's wardrobe.
Arriving at the Ravenswood for her first appointment, Head found West
clad in "a long, tight, white dress cut down to her navel, her bosom thrust
out seductively. . . . Before I could even introduce myself, she said, 'This is
the Mae West look.' " The two women hit it off immediately and became
lifelongo friends. Head was willingto to work with West and understood that
the actress needed to be an equal partner in the conceptualization of her
image. Additionally, Head appreciated West's fashion sense. Mae West un-
derstood that wearing a gown was an event. Head, who later won Academy
Awards for her designs,
o '
credited West with teaching &
her "all I know about
sex, clotheswise."20
Head had a glimpse into the creation of the Mae West illusion. Much of
the character was signified through the body and its adornments. Mae
wanted her gowns tight and long, exposing the neck and arms but nothing
O O O7 i O O
else so the spectators' imaginations did the rest of the work. Head indulged
her and designed extravagant, skintight 18908 revival gowns with boned
bodices so that no undergarments spoiled their lines. West's dresses were so
tight that she could not sit or even recline, forcing the studio to devise a tilt-
O ' O
ing board with armrests for her to lean on between scenes. For seated shots,
O '
Head made a duplicate set of slightly looser gowns. As a whole, West's

wardrobe created an illusion of a healthy and well-formed figure. Aug-
154 * M A E * W E S T
mented with five-inch heels that exaggerated her shimmying strut, Mae as
Lou appeared larger than life, almost like a superhero.
Edith Head may have understood Mae West, but Lowell Sherman did not.
To his surprise, she insisted on discussing every aspect of the film, demanded
Sherman justify his directions, and constantly made suggestions. Sherman
was appalled: In the studio system no one challenged the director, especially
an actress. One journalist observed that "a director of a Mae West picture not
only directs the picture, he has to spare the time to explain why she is wrong
in thinkingo as she does or else simply
i j agree
o and change
o matters to her current
approval." Sherman's dislike for West grew. He harassed her for being tardy
to the set,' and behind her back he called her the "bitch-goddess."
o
When he
complained about her attempts to control the film, he found Le Baron un-
sympathetic and totally supportive of West. Actress Ann Sheridan, then a
novice contract player, remembered proudly, "The directors had very little
to do with her films, you know. Miss West said exactly what she wanted
done. She got exactly what she wanted." But Gary Grant was also alienated
by her domineering presence both on and off the screen. "She did her own
thing to the detriment of everyone around her," he contended.21
Despite the tension, She Done Him Wrong clocked in, according to West, at
only eighteen days, three days short of its projected finish date. Additionally,
the film cost only $200,000 to shoot, a remarkably lean budget for a major
feature. Although the film's future looked bright, Paramount's did not. By
January, the studio had declared bankruptcy and was in receivership.
On January 9, Paramount invited the public, film critics, and Hays Office
representatives to a preview of She Done Him Wrong. Variety's West Coast cor-
respondent declared it a smashing achievement certain to make Mae West a
matinee idol and turn her studio a big profit. He celebrated "Diamond Lil's"
appearance on the screen, noting that she had been "slightly chastened for
the film house." But he predicted that it had just enough sex to sell the film,
declaring that "the entire production depends on the personality of the SEX
star who gets across each jibe and point with a delivery that will soon be im-
itated in every home that has a sixteen-year-old daughter." According to
Hays's staff, the audience responded with "hearty, if somewhat rowdy
amusement." At another early showing, Harrison Reports, a trade paper for
film exhibitors, found West's film "entertaining"
7
O
but warned that it was "not
suitable for children or for Sunday showing." The formerly optimistic James
Wingate
O
was concerned. He felt certain that while Southern California 1pre-
view audiences had enjoyed She Done Him Wrong, fans in other regions would
find it offensive. He feared that it might add fuel to forces pressing for
22
stricter censorshipl through
o o
governmental legislation.
o
As film censors fretted over West's potential impact, the studio was
preparing to exploit her wanton reputation. During filming, the studio
arranged for West to appear with popular evangelist Billy Sunday in news-
reel footage and publicity photographs; one shot showed him with a chair
raised in defense against
o the actress,7 the caption
r reading,
o' "Still fighting
o & devil's
rum." Publicists built up She Done Him Wrong's authenticity, offering theaters
an article purportedly penned by West in which she attested, "I have known
the great and near great of the Bowery and believe you me they tell stories
that sound like the fabulous imaginings of a dope fiend." At the same time,
Paramount continued to distance the real person from the Bowery queen,
depicting West as a serious, professional artist. Borrowing from Paramount
press releases, several articles repeated claims that "not the faintest breath of
scandal has ever brushed the damask cheek of Mae."23
Firmly aware of the hurdles they faced selling Mae West to the public,
Paramount bypassed Los Angeles for an elaborate New York City premiere.
With West's hometown ties and the film's metropolitan setting, success
seemed most likely there. The studio went all out, hiring a gay nineties
horse-drawn carriage to meet West at Grand Central Station and carry her
down Broadway. Paramount's publicity department planted articles in the
local newspapers recounting her life and achievements. Advertisements an-
nouncing the film promised a personal midnight appearance by the star in a
live stage show called Knights of Love.
The strategy worked. On February 9, Manhattanites lined up in droves
for She Done Him Wrong. At midnight, sporting a tight black gown, La West
made her entrance supported by a chorus line of male dancers dressed in po-
lice uniforms. After a song,o'
"some hot chatter,"' and then a change o
of set,' she
appeared in a bedroom where she received male admirers and bantered with
her black maid, played by actress Libby Taylor. While Variety rated it over-
done, the audience loved it. They packed the Paramount Theater, which had
recently seen dismal times, to capacity. At the end of the first week, She Done
Him Wrong had broken box office records, and Paramount decided to hold it
over for a second week. Surprisingly,
r o J' it drew even bigger
to crowds.
After two record-breakingo weeks in Manhattan,' West and her film moved
on to Brooklyn, where it also scored an astonishing take. After she finished a
week there, Paramount brought her back to Manhattan. It was the first time the
studio had ever rebooked a picture in a first-run house. After another successful
seven days, West bounced back to Brooklyn. Although times were bleak—the
government had declared a bank holiday, and cash was scarce—the film made
another impressive showing. Exploiting the moment, Paramount plastered Mae
West's image on broadsides declaring, "You can bank on me."24
156 * M A E * WEST
Across the country, it was the same. Film lovers packed theaters for She
Done Him Wrong. By February i 8, only a few days after its general release,
newspapers reported that it had broken box office records in more than
thirty cities. One Texan film exhibitor reported that its gross exceeded that
of any other movie he had played in seven years. Around the nation, ex-
hibitors rebooked the film even before the finish of its first run. "The whole
country is going West," Paramount publicity proclaimed. Only a few short
weeks after the film's release, Mae West had become a national icon. Many
filmgoers saw the movie several times. Ushers had to chase out fans who in-
O
sisted on staying for two and three showings in a row. Although to many it
J O O O J
seemed an abrupt rise to fame, West's ascendance had come after a lifetime
of commitment and hard work. Her only regret was that her mother had not
lived to see her, and Diamond Lil, reach superstardom.25
The movie public went wild over what one fan magazine called West's "red
hot momma personality." The assessment of professional film critics was not
as glowing. Unlike his Hollywood counterpart, Variety's New York correspon-
dent found the film lacking. He complained about West's roughness, insisting
that despite attempts to clean her up, "Mae couldn't sing a lullaby without
making it sexy." While several others decried the film's vulgarities, some re-
viewers applauded West's effort. The New York Herald Tribune praised West's
"comic honesty" and recommended the film as "a hearty, hilarious and hand-
somely rowdy motion picture." John Mason Brown declared that West be-
longed in the category of mythological heroes and legends, noting that "as
authoress and actress, she continues the Paul Bunyan tradition." He congratu-
lated Mae not only for her humor but also for her frankness: "To her sex is
sex, and that is all there is to it, or for that matter to life."26
The Hays Office, noting her popularity, was alarmed at the number of re-
viewers who persisted in identifying the production as Diamond Lil. Indeed,
the New York Times entitled its review "Diamond Lil," and Variety commented
that "nothingO much has changed O
except1
the title. But don't tell that to Will
Hays." Despite all Hays's efforts, She Done Him Wrong differed little from Di-
amond Lil, and everyone knew it. In fact, his meddling had produced an even
more volatile version. As ineffectual as Will Hays was, his efforts to mediate
Mae West drove her to rely more heavily on signification. The result was a
more nuanced but, in some ways, more powerful rebellion.27
The plot of She Done Him Wrong differed only slightly from Diamond Lil.
Lady Lou is the Queen of the Bowery, pursued by all men but desiring only
one—Captain Cummings. At Hays's insistence, Gus Jordon became a coun-
terfeiter, Rita procured young women to become "classy dips and burglars,"
and Captain Cummings was forbidden to wear a Salvation Army uniform.
GOOD NIGHT TO THE D I C H O T O M I E S 157
Allusions to Dan Flynn's homosexuality were thoroughly expunged. And, of

course, West's dialogue was toned down.28
Still, She Done Him Wrong was subversive. Hays's exclusion of religious
themes effectively deleted Lil's/Lou's turmoil over faith. Although Lou ap-
pears big-hearted—she tenderly nurses Sally after a suicide attempt—the
Bowery queen emerges as more unregenerate than Diamond Lil. Like Lil,
she maintains that she has "got no soul." But unlike her predecessor, Lou
never seeks deeper spiritual awareness. Rather, she resorts to a string of
wisecracks. After luring Cummings up to her bedroom, Lou boasts, "You
know it was a toss upr whether I went in for diamonds or sin?o in the choir."
She pauses, "The choir lost." In fact, Lou is far more blatantly scarlet than Lil.
A female acquaintance praises her, "Ah Lady Lou, you're a fine gal, a fine
woman." Lou responds, "One of the finest that ever walked the streets."
Like Diamond Lil, She Done Him Wrong was rooted in West's appropriation
of a blues womanist consciousness and her rejection of WASPish notions of
white womanhood. Lou is kind to children, patting a tyke on the head, but
she rejects motherhood. Frankly libidinous, she enjoys sex and celebrates her
sensuality. She refuses to yield to any man. In the eyes of contemporary
viewers, Lou was dangerous. One writer characterized her as the "hardest,
wickedest, and most vicious destroyer of men you can imagine."29
The boudoir scene between Lou and Cummings carried a far greater punch
than it did in the play. In the film, as Cummings opens the door to leave, Lou
slams it shut with one hand. To block his exit, she slowly maneuvers her body
against his, with head held high but eyes fixed downward. Her invasion of his
space and her refusal to meet his eyes makes Cummings nervous. After an un-
comfortable pause, he embraces her, but before he kisses her, she pushes him
back. Lou opens the door and bids him, "Come up again, anytime." After he
leaves, she announces, "Well, it won't be long now." In the play, Lil settles for a
kiss on the forehead and then plots her next move. On the screen, Lou claims
victory over the most unattainable man she has ever encountered.
The film's conclusion came from Diamond Lil's earlier and more rebellious
drafts. When Cummings o rplaces her under arrest,' Lou demands he fetch her
fur wrap and then hand her its train. As they ride off together, he attempts to
hold her hand. She pulls it back: "It ain't heavy. I can hold it myself." He per-
sists, removing the diamonds from her fingers and presenting her with a new
ring. "You're my prisoner," he tells her, "and I'm going to be your jailer." He
playfully scolds her, "You bad girl," but she warns him, "Oh, you'll find out."
As they kissed, the film faded out. Although it concluded one of the era's
most popular comedies, West's ending offered a serious indictment of mar-
riage and gender expectations.
158 MAE 8 WEST
The American public went wild over this untamed woman and her crafty
witticisms. "You can be had" became a popular retort among young and old
alike. While being evicted from her residence, Mrs. America Grant told re-
porters, "They done me wrong." Of all the Westianisms, none became more
famous than "Come up and see me sometime." Actually, Lou never uttered
those exact words; her invitation was "Come up sometime and see me." In
the public imagination, the line was altered, and it quickly became one of the
era's most popular sayings. In turn, West, always scouting for the best mate-
rial, reclaimed it and made it her trademark. She even had a doormat embla-
zoned with "Come Up and See Me Sometime" made for her dressing room's
front step. Significantly, since West's original version was rooted in an
African-American blues song, "Come up and see me sometime" not only
maintained her ties to African-American culture but furthered the subver-
sive black presence within American culture. Few, except Perry Bradford
and his circle, recognized West's prank on the white moviegoers who were
7
C> 1 &
elevating her to the status of a white female sex symbol.30

Like Diamond Lil, She Done Him Wrong displayed the strong influence that
African-American culture had on Mae West and her performance. In fact,
Hays's tampering, which compelled West to rename the film She Done Him
Wrong, only underscored her links to "Frankie and Johnny" and African-
American culture. By inverting the song's refrain "He done me wrong," West
made Lou even more audacious,' highlighting
t o o
Frankie's
t o
revenge
o o
against her
man. Like Lil's, Lou's resistance rested in her infidelity, her rejection of the
double standard for men and women. "Haven't you ever met a man who
makes you happy?" Cummings asks. "Sure," she replies. "Lots of times." She
Done Him Wrong, which reached a larger audience than the play, inverted ex-
pectations and put society's dichotomies on a collision course. Lou, the
woman, is strong and powerful; the men she conquers are weak and submis-
sive. She is the trickster hero who defies her subordinate position in society
and seizes control by pitting men against each other. She is also an enigma,
exposing contradictions and creating chaos wherever she goes. Lou the blues
singer,
o '
a contradiction in herself,' takes center stage
to
and croons to the men
fixated on her larger-than-life image, telling them, "I'm a fast moving
woman who likes to take it slow."
As with the play, many critics heralded West's cinematic "Frankie and
Johnny" as a classic. When she appeared on the Rudy Vallee radio show to
plug her film, she performed a live version of the song, complete with male
backup singers, a honky-tonk pianist, and jazz orchestra. Essentially, she di-
rectly assumed the role of Frankie, becoming the mixed-race prostitute and
enacting her retaliation against her lover. With the male chorus intoning,
"She shot her man because he done her wrong," Frankie gets the electric
chair, and Mae West, the blues singer, trickster, and interpreter, sings:
This moral has no story,

This story has no end.
Story only goes to show,
There ain't no good in men.31
The confusing, almost nonsensical conclusion furthered West's trickster-

ism. On one level, the moral appears to be that a woman who avenges her
lover's disloyalty and defies gender roles will pay with her life. But that is the
fiction of a patriarchal society, not Frankie's story. Her story shows that a fa-
tal consequence awaits an angry woman's unfaithful lover; its moral, for all
women,' is that "There ain't no ogood in men." This was one of West's most
pointed critiques of male privilege and authority.
While West's screen version of "Frankie and Johnny" was truncated by
Cummings's raid on Gus Jordon's saloon, it not only challenged gender roles
but, as the plot's driving force, also contested racism. Like Lil's, Lou's white-
ness is established and then interrogated. In addition to calling on the blues,
West also destablizes Lou's racial identity using Pearl, the black maid. On
one hand, Pearl offers testimony to Lou's whiteness. As film scholar Donald
Bogle points out, the rotund Pearl, a recycled stereotype of the black
mammy, helped transform Lou into a spectacle of shapely Victorian
WASPish beauty. Additionally, while Pearl appears in the traditional black
dress and apron, Lou's whiteness is often highlighted by her contrasting light
gowns and sparkling diamonds. Furthermore, racist discourse also estab-
lishes Lou's position as a white woman. Lou disparages Pearl, accusing her of
laziness, even calling her "eightball," while Pearl gushes, "I just loves to work
for you." Beyond this, Pearl serves as Lou's foil. When the Bowery queen
complains about uncomfortable petticoats, Pearl remarks, "I wouldn't want
no policeman to catch me with no petticoats on." Lou inquires, "No police-
man? What about a fireman?"32
Yet, at the same time, Pearl represented a departure in the cinematic por-
trayal of black maids. As on the stage, filmmakers used these characters as
props; they served as backdrops and markers of both class and race for white
characters. But Pearl conversed freely with her employer and, as some schol-
ars have pointed out, enjoyed an existence outside of her job. She even man-
ifested a boldness and was not afraid to challenge a white woman. When Lou
accuses her of sleeping on the job, Pearl retorts, "I ain't been sleepin' so
much that I don't know what's go in' on around here." She then forces Lou to
l6o * M A E * W E S T
confront her attraction to Cummings. o

Pearl evidences West's continuingo use
of primitivism; she imagined her black characters as being more in touch
with their feelings
o
than even her white fictional self.
Pearl's defiance and her superior insight were cautiously crafted. Louise
Beavers speaks her lines—and her mind—while on her knees fussing with
the hem of Lou's dress. The overall effect againo
was mixed: Pearl's assertive
dialogue was countered by her passive body language. It was consistent with
West's double vision, which produced a fiction both safe and dangerous.
First drafts of She Done Him Wrong indicate that West's initial conceptions of
Pearl were even more complicated. Originally, West named Lou's maid
Maizie. In a scene that was never filmed, Lou complains about a male suitor's
attempts to control her, remarking to Maizie, "I thought Lincoln put an end
to slavery." Maizie responds, "Ah ain't heard tell of it."
On one level, the scene emphasized Lou as the white mistress and Maizie
as the black servant, reaffirming the disparaging image of the ignorant and
submissive black maid. But it also coyly reversed its racist underpinnings.
Maizie's response, "Ah ain't heard tell of it," was sarcastic commentary on her
treatment by both Lou and white society. Lou reacts with a laugh, and quips,
"Well, that guy never heard of it either," returning their exchange to a cri-
tique of male domination and linking the status of women to that of slaves.33
Equally symbolic was West's choice of names. Her original conception,
Maizie, revealed her deep identification with her black characters, for Maizie
was a common nickname for Mae. It indicated that, at some level, West ac-
knowledged that her black characters were reflections of herself and her strug-
gles with identity. Her decision to change the maid's name to Pearl, which she
had also used in The Constant Sinner, also carried a double-voicedness. Pearl
was a name commonly used for fictive black maids, the whiteness of pearls
providing a supposedly comedic contrast to the character's blackness. While
West's use of Pearl reinforced such racist humor, it also contained a rebel-
lious message. For West, pearls carried a deep significance. As Edith Head
quickly learned, Mae adamantly refused to wear pearls or anything with
pearls on it because she believed they symbolized endless sorrow. West was
too in tune with the multiple meanings encoded in language for Pearl's name
to be an accident. Linkingo
her maid's name with endless sorrow suggests
oo
that
West was far more aware of the oppressive past suffered by African Ameri-
cans than it appeared on the surface.34
West's dualistic qualities, as Stark Young had earlier observed, permitted
spectators to enjoy West's performance as they wished. Her malleability al-
lowed her to reach a variety of audiences, and as a result, by the late winter
of 1933, she achieved unprecedented popularity. Fan mail poured in, ac-
GOOD NIGHT TO THE DICHOTOMIES l6l
cording to William Morris's estimate, at fifteen hundred letters a week.

Movie magazines and the national media regularly featured her; several
fought for the rights to her life story. In September 1933, she appeared on
Life magazine's cover as the queen of diamonds above a caption reading,
"C'mon up sometime." She was accorded numerous honors; she became an
honorary Kentucky Colonel and was selected "dream girl" by Columbia Uni-
versity's freshman class. References to her made their way into fiction and
films. Mae West dolls became a popular carnival prize; George Raft, enjoy-
ing a day at the Venice Beach boardwalk, actually won one.
Before long, more Mae West imitators, both amateur and professional,
sprang up. One of the 19205' greatest African-American blues artists, Ida
Cox, began a successful tour billed as "the Sepia Mae West." Ironically,
African-American singers, like Cox struggled during the Depression while
stars like West achieved success with material that they had appropriated
from the black community. Cox reported that Bessie Smith "saw me at re-
hearsal all dressed up like Mae West, and she just laughed her head off."
Other notable Mae West impersonators also appeared. One precocious
child actress, who appeared in Baby Burlesque shorts, was instructed by the
director to mimic the increasingly popular Mae West. Her name was Shirley
Temple. In Polly Tix in Washington, Shirley struts in, hand on hip, and seduces
a baby senator in diapers with "Oh come now, you can be had."35
As West rapidly became ingrained in the American consciousness, ob-
servers began speculating about her seemingly overnight success. Curiously,
West, the Brooklyn bombshell, differed dramatically from almost all previ-
ous movie queens. She lacked the sophistication of Garbo and Dietrich; she
was not delicate like Norma Shearer; and she was not at all vulnerable like
the "It Girl," Clara Bow, nor as brassy as Jean Harlow. Most contended that
West's popularity derived from a single source—the Depression. By 1933,
the American economy had collapsed, the unemployment rate had risen to
almost 2£ percent, and breadlines and soup kitchens sprouted in cities and
towns across the country. People forced from their homes lived in their cars
or in shantytowns. Those less desperate saw their salaries and their standard
of living decline. After enduring more than three years of hardship and de-
spair, and a seemingly uncaring and ineffectual President Herbert Hoover,
Americans were in the mood for change. o
Significantly, West's starring debut coincided with the buoyant, opti-
mistic, and confident Franklin Delano Roosevelt's election to the presi-
dency. The promise of his new leadership discernibly boosted the national
mood. Previously, pessimistic gangster pictures and the Marx Brothers' ni-
hilistic comedies had been favorites among movie audiences. But with Roo-
O
l62 M A E * W E S T
sevelt's election in the fall of 1932, fans gravitated toward movies that re-
flected more hoper and cheer. West's studied humor signaled
o the beginning
o o
of this trend. The New York Daily News observed, "Mae, right or wrong, has
started something new in the movies." Motion Picture Magazine concluded that
West and Roosevelt shared similarities:
Mae . . . fits the temper of the times, say the experts. This, they aver, is the
day of directness, honesty, 'facing things.' It is the day of Roosevelt in the
White House—warm, human, and earthy, a forthright person doing un-
derstandable things to comfort us. It is the day of Mae West in films—
warm, human, and earthy, doing equally understandable things to cheer us.
Americans wanted to reclaim pride and confidence, and nobody seemed

more proud or confident than Mae West.36
Through Lou, West rose as a working-class heroine for the era,
unashamed of her proletarian origins and, no matter how rich or successful,
never surrendering her strong Brooklynese accent or her linguistic working-
class ties. Furthermore, audiences knew that Lou had come from the poor-
est of the poor; as a woman of the underclass, she started at the lowest rungs
of the societal ladder but, through perseverance and living by her wits, had
climbed high. West's trickster tale, where the seemingly weak triumphs over
the powerful, had strong appeal for Depression-era audiences. West believed
she had won over Americans because they "admire cleverness, resourceful-
ness, and they applaud honesty. They despise a quitter or a crook."37
Like most of West's earlier characterizations, Lou rejected the rich and
their affluence. While affirming the American belief in independence and
self-reliance, Lou, like Lil, discovers that her diamonds are meaningless—
that they have no soul. As she begins to liberate herself from her worldly
possessions, she finds herself nearing her goal. While the message was sub-
tle, it still stood as a reminder that happiness and fulfillment did not always
lie in the material and that "goodness
o
had nothingo to do with" wealth. West
gave a much needed boost to a people who had lost so much and struggled
on with so little.
Even West's star persona provided Americans a working-class role
model. Paramount now sought to exploit her working-class background, re-
vealing that her father had been a prizefighter and that she had been raised in
Brooklyn's blue-collar neighborhoods. According to the media, fans liked
West because she seemed "real ""regular," and "on the level." Press releases
' O '
and fan magazines emphasized her solid work ethic—that she had plied her
trade since childhood. One writer declared that "nothing has been given to
her on a silver platter. She's indignant at the very thought of those who ex-
pect something for nothing." Such qualities no doubt resonated with Depres-
sion-era resentment for the rich as well as with the American faith in
individualism and hard work. West was fast becoming a star for the people.38
Publicity also stressed that while West had enjoyed success, she had not
forgotten her roots. She helped friends in need—neighbors in Woodhaven,
women from Welfare Island, and old show business pals who had fallen on
hard times. While journalists noted her penchant for expensive perfumes
and gowns, they also reported that her tastes, for the most part, remained
working-class. One revealed that West preferred thick steaks, corned beef
and cabbage, and potatoes over the more exotic fare consumed by most fe-
male film luminaries. Of course, they also publicized her devotion to prize-
fighting. Every Friday night, she was in the front row at the Olympic
Auditorium, and she often awarded the trophy to the evening's top winner.
When one writer divulged that some in Hollywood looked askance at her
enthusiasm for such a rough and masculine sport, West responded that box-
ing could, and should, be enjoyed by everyone regardless of gender. Before
long, a few film colony celebrities, including Lupe Velez, Johnny Weis-
muller, and even gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, joined West and her en-
tourage at ringside.
O O
On the whole, West remained isolated from the film colony, which, in
turn, only increased her popularity among movie fans. Her status as a Holly-
wood outsider served to confirm, in the American mind, her links to com-
mon folk. Tinsel Town had evolved its own group of aristocrats—wealthy
and adored but strictly untouchable. It was well known that Hollywood's
elite had snubbed Mae. Years later, Miriam Hopkins, a Paramount starlet in
the early 19305, scolded writer John Kobal for daring to even mention one
of her films in connection with Mae West. "They don't belong in the same
conversation or category," she ranted. Paramount's publicists made the most
of West's outcast status, reporting her disdain for Hollywood and its social
whirl. "I'm always too busy to go in for a lot of front, and besides, I know too
many people who are down and out," she told Motion Picture Magazine.^9
The studio eagerly tapped into fan reaction to promote the Westian star
persona. In addition to touting her working-class ties, the publicity campaign
played up West's defiance of gender roles. At a time when women had little
influence in the studios, West had amassed a remarkable amount of power.
Rather than ignoring or hiding this anomaly, publicists used it, indicating that
she was as bold offscreen as she was on. West told one interviewer, "I never
enter a room—either on social or business duties—without letting the man
O
across from me know that he is talking to a woman. And I have had to do my

O J
164 M A E * WEST
share of outsmarting men through necessity." Publicists reported that West

wrote her own material and directed herself in her films. Press releases de-
picted her as constantly engaged in writing but also revealed that she did
"her best work in bed."40
Paramount concentrated on courtingo Mae West's female fans. Women
comprised a large portion of movie patrons, and their support had been crit-
ical to Mae's rise. While West's detractors predicted that she would only ap-
peal to men, She Done Him Wrong's massive success proved that many women
also found her compelling. Fan mail came from both men and women, and
women sent not only letters of appreciation but also ones that asked for ad-
vice. One fan having marital difficulties complained that after she tried out
some Westian mannerisms and sayings on her husband, he promptly gave
her a black eye. West's response, printed in a fan magazine, mediated her
message. Rather than speak out against physical abuse, she confessed that her
style was uniquely her own and might not work for others.
Indeed, women, young and old, were imitating West's bold walk, talk,
and mannerisms. At one high school dress-up day, the most popular costume
among teenage girls was that of Mae West. In Chicago, a four-year-old com-
peting in a children's pageant took first prize for her impersonation of Mae
West. Writer Janet Frame recalled that as a child in New Zealand, "everyone
was talking about Mae West and Mae West stories" and making up double
entendres. The Los Angeles Jewish Women's Council, like other "women's
groups, sponsored a gay nineties benefit costume party, and members
turned out in full turn-of-the-century regalia. One writer noted that West
owed much of her popularity to support from women, who "particularly ap-
prove of her. This is easy to understand for Mae makes fools of the men."41
Beyond influencing women's self-perceptions, behavior, and speech,
West also was in the process of transforming notions about the female body.
Her full figure and turn-of-the-century fashions became the latest craze. The
studio's insistence that West was typically svelte diminished (although never
completely) as it tapped into the rising popularity of the Mae West look.
One female journalist, who disapproved of She Done Him Wrong, nonetheless
hailed West for breaking down the notion that women had to starve them-
selves into beauty. "To see anyone so spontaneously vulgar and exaggeratedly
alluring after years and years of flat chested, hipless ladies is by no means
displeasing," she wrote. Motion Picture Magazine's Elza Schallert trumpeted
West as "healthy and Amazonian .""The movie audiences have become curve
conscious again—and Mae is leading the way," Schallert wrote. "She spells
doom to the hollow-eyed, sunken-cheeked, flat-chested, hipless exponents
of the neurotic." Others documented West's hearty stamina. The studio also
GOOD NIGHT TO THE DICHOTOMIES 165
emphasized her love of exercise, reportedly inherited from her prizefighting

father. Her image became one of physical prowess and strength. In one inter-
view, Jim Timony bragged that she could lift five men at once and possessed
"the most beautiful and strongest feminine body in the world." Publicists
promoted West's measurements as being similar to those of the Venus de
Milo. "Only I got arms," Mae added.42
Repeatedly, West made plain her intention to exalt the female form. Cel-
ebratingo the end of Prohibition with a studio-concocted beer-drinkingo con-
test against Gary Cooper, she declared, "Now that beer is really back and we
are all drinking it, why not wage a campaign for the return of the woman's
natural figure?"
o In her opinion,
r ' women no longer
o looked like women. She
blamed the 19205 flapper look on French designers, who, reacting first to
World War I and later to the Depression, pushed the lean and straight lines
that forced women into an endless cycle of dieting. The pressure to lose
weight seemed completely out of step in a society that suffered from eco-
nomic deprivation. "Millions of women are undernourished and lack the vi-
tality to wear the flapper fashion," she stated. Rather, women should be
encouraged to eat and be healthy. She boldly advised women that there was
"no need to diet anymore" and interpreted the popularity of her figure as "a
return to normal, the ladies' way of saying that the depression is over." One
female movie critic noted that "the ladies, God bless them, are now luxuri-
ously ordering whipped cream with their chocolate and dressing up a la Mae
West because even Mrs. Grundy's jolly well fed up with being 'prohibited.' "43
Some have criticized West's revival of i 8908 styles as a return to an op-
pressive image for women. Most assessments of women's fashions celebrate
the flapper as a rebellion against restrictive Victorian dress. Victorian
corsets were not only unhealthy, causing damage to internal organs and
breaking ribs (something that West probably knew firsthand), but also
molded women's bodies into unreal shapes. However, West argued that the
newer, supposedly more liberated image of the 19208 was equally, if not
more, unreal. She contended that she did not replicate nineties dress but
rather revised it for modern women. Revealing o
that her corset was refash-
ioned, she—falsely of course—insisted to Vogue magazine that it did not in
any way bind her figure. Vogue concluded that the Westian image was "an il-
lusion, but a healthier one for women." West understood how to use her
body to fight convention and reverse notions of beauty and desirability. If she
could convince society that the bigger the woman the better, then she had
upset one of the era's most powerful restrictions on women's bodies.44
It did not take long for the fashion world to jump on the Mae West band-
wagon. That summer, as the film began to make its way around the world,
Lady Lou parties became the latest craze in Paris. Designers in both Europe
and the United States incorporated elements of Edith Head's costumes into
their fall lineups. Ornate gowns emphasizing hips and busts and accented
with sequins, boas, picture hats, feathers, and, of course, diamond jewelry
became the rage. Soon, Head's distinctive nineties revival look had its impact
on Hollywood. Female stars appeared in updated versions of 18908 gowns.
Collier's noted the rising popularity of the Mae West look, especially in hats:
"Even less dressy people will wear a feather in their caps this season—not
just a modest tip but one worthy of the name of plume." Margy Lament and
her Bird of Paradise had come a long way.45
The West revolt against the popular feminine body and fashions was sub-
versively empowering, but the context definitely was not even proto-feminist.
The studio and West promoted her look by plugging its appeal to men:
Women should develop their bodies not only to improve their health but
also to attract men. "Why is it you never see men turn around and look at a
girl as she passes them on the streets the way they used to when women
were women?" West asked a Vogue interviewer, concluding, "Because there's
nothing for them to look at anymore." Although she denounced binding un-
dergarments,
o '
she also advised women to accent their curves with "a little
squeeze of the waist" that was sure to catch a man's "roving eye." Again, West
had submerged her resistance within a message acceptable to the dominant
culture. Her fictionalized illusionary body itself exemplified this double-
voicedness, constrained at the waist and liberated at the hips and bust.
West's pronouncements about fashion and the body were linked to her
belief that the genders were in a constant struggle. Vogue commented, "She
believes in the Battle of the Sexes—and in being well equipped for the fray."
For West, a sensual physique that excited men's passions was a woman's
greatest weapon. Women could exert an extraordinary amount of power by
appealing to what West believed was men's fatal flaw: their sex drive.46
Of course, some were appalled by West's attitudes. One editorialist ex-
rpressed fears that West heralded "the dawn of a pagan r o ape o in America." But
many found her refreshing, applauding her open approach to a topic deemed
unmentionable in American society. A few congratulated West for bucking so-
ciety's hypocritical attitudes, for bringing sex "right out into the open" and cel-
ebrating it as "beautiful." Photoplay praised West's message: "Sex is no tragedy.
Nor should there be any sense of guilt attached to it. Sex is something to enjoy,
something to laugh about. Certainly not a harmful, sinful thing." Ironically,
West, decked out in Victorian finery, confronted Victorian taboos head on.
She not only made sex a public matter but provided a female role model who
delighted in it. West's approach was even more subversive than that of pre-
GOOD N I G H T TO THE D I C H O T O M I E S l6j
sumably liberated flappers: They may have enjoyed sex; the Westian character
not only enjoyed it but enjoyed it very much and very often.47
Interestingly, many contended that West only got away with such blatant
sensuality by submerging it within humor. Several contemporaries pointed
out that if West had been serious,' her work would have been too dangerous o
to ever appear on the screen. Even West's own assessment—"I kid sex"—
indicates the complexities in her approach. On the one hand, she seemed to
supply an honest and serious appraisal of sex. On the other, it appeared as
one big joke. By signifying, she caricatured, parodied, and satirized sex, both
underminingo and underscoringo the carnalityJ she exuded. One writer argued o
that her "sense of humor is her crowningo attribute."48
But in the unreal real world of Mae West's work, sex is almost completely
absent. In She Done Him Wrong, with the exception of a rare, stiff embrace and
one kiss as the film concludes, sex never happens. West never portrayed sex;
she signified it. In her films, as in her plays, sex occurred through linguistic play,
verbal competitions, and double entendres. When Lou resists Cummings's at-
tempts to handcuff her, telling him she was not "born with 'em," he states, "A
lot of men would have been safer it you had." Lou grumbles, "Oh, I don't know,
hands ain't everything." Ironically, the woman whom many would celebrate as
filmdom's sexiest star achieved her honors with almost no love scenes.
It was this trickster that people came to admire—the character who cre-
ated action through inaction, who seemed both real and imagined at the
O ' o
same time. Lou's wit and guile provided much of the foundation of West's
appeal. She was worshiped not just for her hourglass figure but for her
shrewdness and cunning, communicated through language. Motion Picture
Magazine praised West and her character for "a wit and quick mind that are
as broad as the world and as encompassing." Lou was boldly intelligent,
smarter than everyone else in her fictional world. Interviewers claimed
West possessed a similar verve, sharp mind, and quick tongue. West knew
that her characters existed in a verbal realm, describing herself as "an articu-
late image" that "mocked and delighted" both men and women.
West reacted to her growing fame with detachment. "I became suddenly a
O O J
star seen in the third person, even by myself," she wrote in her autobiogra-
phy. As the celebrity and the fictional characters she portrayed became more
intertwined, West's real self was increasingly submerged within these ele-
ments. She lamented her growing isolation, both internal and external; "I
soon saw that I was a prisoner of my publicity and success." Since childhood
her life had revolved around acting, passing for someone she was not. As an
adult,' she had merged O
her autobiographical
O 1
struggles
OO
with her fantasized
presence, blurring her fictionalized and real selves. The efficient Hollywood
l68 M A E * WEST
machine would continue fusing these elements—the real person, the star,
and the characters—into one successful blockbuster image. For West, it be-
O 7
came a proud accomplishment but also a frustrating confinement.49

As West became increasingly entrapped by her particular star presence,
she became more dependent on her small trustworthy entourage. Harry
Voiler, who had failed to help West secure her stolen jewels, soon vanished.
After her New York premiere, she added three others. First was her brother,
John West. He had never settled into a career, and Mae convinced Para-
mount to hire him. He took her spare bedroom at the Ravenswood, and Jim
Timony moved to an apartment down the hall, which he shared with an-
other addition to the Westian inner circle, Russian emigre
7
O
Boris Petroff. A
ballet master and former vaudevillian, Petroff had produced Mae's Knights of
Love stage show. Impressed with his work, she talked the studio into bringing
him to California, where he assumed duties as her "adviser." Along with Ti-
' O
mony, he appeared constantly by her side.50

The third new member of West's entourage was Libby Taylor. According to
Lorenzo Tucker, West had known her since the 19203 when they met at
Harlem's Black and Gold, a barbecue spot. Although Taylor worked diere as a
cook, she was also a comedic actress, who like many other African-Americans
had found show business almost impermeable. Unable to use her in The Con-
stant Sinner, West made sure Taylor got the role in She Done Him Wrong's
stage show. Hoping to break into the motion pictures, Taylor returned with
West to Hollywood and served as her personal maid. Many of the era's
African-American actresses worked behind the scenes as domestics while
waiting for their film careers to take off; what made Taylor different was that
she became a very visible presence. She attended West at home and the stu-
dio, answered the telephone, received and introduced guests, spoke with re-
porters, posed for photographs with the star, and also cooked and cleaned.51
Despite her astonishing success, only one of Paramount's featured stars
forged a friendship with Mae West, and that was Marlene Dietrich. The
German-born actress was an outsider considered standoffish by Hollywood
insiders. Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva, remembered her mother's genuine
O ' ' O
admiration for the brash but thoroughly

O J
lovable Mae West. West barged
O
into
Dietrich's dressing room unannounced (the only one on the lot who could
get away with it), swiped her flowers, gossiped and kidded with her, and al-
ways offered blunt opinions. When Dietrich anguished over the studio's ex-
ploitation of her legs, West motioning to her bosom, joked, "You give 'em
the bottom and I'll give 'em the top." But she also cautioned, "Ducks—we
have to go for the women too. Not just the men. Remember that."
Even with Dietrich, West maintained her distance. Riva claimed the two
never socialized outside of the studio. Furthermore, she also remembered
West's repeated attempts to shock her mother. Emphasizing that female

filmgoers were just as important as male fans, West told Dietrich, "If it were
just the men, all I'd have to do is take 'em out," and with that proclamation,
she exposed one breast. She then tucked it away, "patted the inside of Diet-
rich's naked thigh, and sashayed out." Dietrich laughed uproariously. Riva
described it as "a perfect performance." Calculating her actions for maxi-
mum effect, West remained a performer both on and off the stage. Dietrich
probably never penetrated beyond West's star persona, but she still regarded
Mae with special esteem. They did share an important link: They were both
strong women battling a patriarchal studio and profession. Dietrich pro-
claimed West a "very good friend." She was one of the few who ever made
such a statement about Mae, and later in life she wrote of her regret that she
had never expressed her gratitude or affection for her old friend. 52
Some have alleged that Dietrich and West were romantically involved.
However, Riva, who knew her mother's female lovers well, claimed that West
was one of Dietrich's few nonsexual relationships. Riva did remember knock-
ingo on West's dressingo room door and finding o
her father alone with Mae,' who
was quickly slipping on a dressing gown. For the most part, West's life
seemed to focus on work. Tinsel Town wags linked her with Paramount's
O
Gary Cooper as well as numerous boxers and wrestlers, both black and
white, but she insisted she had no time for lovers. Columnist Sidney Skolsky
did report that when Jim Timony was identified as Mae's boyfriend, someone
on the set exclaimed, "My, what a job." Generally, publicists portrayed West
as hardworking, dedicated to her craft, and so devoted to her family that she
had never married out of respect for her departed mother.53
Although the studio built a life story for West that blurred reality and fan-
tasy, it was true that her success had come after years of commitment and
sacrifice. By the summer of 1933, She Done Him Wrong had made over $2
million in profit with proceeds still pouring in. West's film had become one
of the industry's biggest draws ever. In the history of film, only D. W. Grif-
fith's Birth of a Nation had enjoyed so many repeat showings. She Done Him
Wrong's success also drove up demand for Night After Night. This time, West's
name appeared above Raft's on the marquee.
While West's success reinvigorated Paramount's sagging fortunes, it
seemed hardly enough to make up for the studio's massive deficit. Yet in July
1933,the Hays Office noted that Paramount had paid off its debts. Although
the studio remained in receivership for two more years, many, including
Adolph Zukor, credited West with rescuing Paramount. Hoping to ride on
her amazing popularity, Paramount rushed to get her next film into produc-
tion. They had discouraged West from adapting SEX for the screen, but Will
Hays could not rest easy. West's next feature would be entitled I'm No Angel.54
* E * I *G * H * T *
If You Can't Go Straight,

You've Got to Go Around
Who's afraid of the bigO bad censors? Not Mae West. "If you J
can't o
go straight;
o '
theny
you've got
o
to go
o
around,"
'
she says.
J
And
bingo,
O '
how double meanings
O
flash from that.
—Los Angeles Times, September 23, 1934
n late April 1933, while She Done Him Wrong was still fresh in the the-
I aters, Paramount purchased, at West's insistence, a circus-themed

script by Lowell Brentano. Since childhood, West had maintained a
general curiosity about exotic animals; several interviewers noted she
was now always accompanied by an impish pet monkey, Boogey. Over the
next few months, widi the assistance of studio writers, West developed I'm
No Angel, a story about the rise of Tira from sideshow cooch dancer to
celebrity lion tamer. Eyeing West's profitability, Paramount hoped to begin
shooting before the end of June, but there was one big problem: This time,
Will Hays intended to monitor Mae West most carefully.
While her fan followingO was still growing,
O O'
there were those who did not
love Mae. Daily reports, culled from the national press for Hays by his assis-
tant Kirk Russell, revealed a growing split between average filmgoers, who
strongly supported Mae West, and self-appointed movie reformers, who
found her work distasteful and dangerous. Several censorship advocates cited
her rise as evidence of Hays's powerlessness. Hays countered that the public
would reject "vulgarity" at the ticket office. One editorialist, noting West's
success, huffed, "Vulgarity doesn't pay? Well we don't split hairs over a defin-
ition of vulgarity but if it [She Done Him Wrong] is not vulgarity, it is the most
pointed suggestion you ever heard that comes from the talking screen today."1
Of more concern were charges leveled by Catholic leaders who actively
pressed for stricter film regulation. In February 1933, Father Daniel Lord,
the co-author of the 1930 Production Code, sent Hays a stinging letter,
branding She Done Him Wrong as "the filthy Diamond Lil slipping by under a
170
IF YOU CAN T GO S T R A I G H T , YOU VE GOT TO GO A R O U N D 171
new name." He warned that Catholics, tiring of Hays's permissiveness,

would demand either political or ecclesiastical oversight of Hollywood films.
While by some estimates an average of 60,000 Americans filled theaters
weekly for She Done Him Wrong, several states excised portions of the film,
more evidence to Catholic leaders and other censorship advocates of the in-
decent nature of West's work.2
West's role in the evolution of movie censorship was and continues to be
widely debated. Many have attributed film censorship directly to Mae West
and her movies. In many ways, it appeared a logical extension of her bawdy
stage career, and a direct correlation did appear to exist between the advent
of the cinematic Mae West and the tightening of film censorship. Others
have pointed out that she arrived on the silver screen just as calls for movie
"purity" escalated. Certainly, the attempt to regulate films long predated
West's arrival in Hollywood. Both before and after her debut, the Hays Of-
fice scrutinized numerous films deemed offensive and dangerous. o
At the
same time, West's overwhelming popularity made her a visible target. But
she was more than symbolic; her controversial screen presence became a
major impetus that accelerated a process already set into motion.
Just as I'm No Angel was coming together, the Hays Office and the film in-
dustry confronted a major threat. In spring 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
proposed the National Recovery Administration (NRA), a New Deal pro-
gram designed to establish price and wage controls and fair codes of industrial
competition. Hays and studio bosses feared that the NRA, accompanied by an
inevitable congressional
o
investigation
o
into the studio's finances,' would not
only hurt profits and expose some shaky financial practices but also open the
door for federal censorship. Hays concluded that the only way to head off the
NRA and a congressional probe was stricter adherence to the Motion Picture
Code of 1930. He believed that if the Code were publicly enforced, filmmak-
ers could argue that they had, in part, already complied with the NRA.
In April 1933, Hays assumed a "get-tough" attitude for the benefit of the
press. Holding a series of meetings with producers in Hollywood, he laid out
the fearful consequences of government intervention. Variety reported that
Hays announced, no doubt with West's film in mind, that "he was getting tired
of squaring 'dirt' and prostie pictures." He threatened to report all question-
able productions to the New York—based studio executives who controlled the
studios' finances. If they did not act, he promised, he would file complaints
with the lending institutions that held the industry's purse strings.3
Hays's efforts were thwarted by deep and long-standing divisions be-
tween the highly competitive studio heads. Interestingly, one of the earliest
complaints regarding She Done Him Wrong actually came from within the film
colony. Fox executive and former Paramount boss Sidney Kent complained
to Hays that West's film was "far more suggestive in word and what is not
said is suggested in action . . . I cannot understand how your people on the
coast could let this get by." Squabbling extended beyond studio executives.
For years, film exhibitors and independent theater owners had protested
block booking, the studios' practice of marketing films in clusters. Com-
monly, studios lumped weaker films in with blockbusters, forcing exhibitors
to pay for and show movies guaranteed to lose money. By 1933, exhibitors
started to resist the practice more aggressively. Alleging that block booking
required them to run morally offensive films, many exhibitors adopted the
rhetoric of movie reformers and called for censorship. But Kirk Russell as-
sured Hays that Mae West enjoyed great popularity, even among exhibitors
and independent houses, who had offered some of the strongest praise for
her film. When confronted with the contradiction between exhibitors' de-
mand for She Done Him Wrong and their push for censorship, one of their rep-
resentatives exclaimed, "Why there was nothing wrong with She Done Him
Wrong. It is a classic."4
Despite West's growing popularity and her contributions to reviving the
film industry, Hays had to appease people like the vocal Martin Quigley,
whose Motion Picture Herald catered to exhibitors. In the summer of 1932,
Quigley had privately begun pressuring Hays to pursue "some conspicuous
case far enough to convince all concerned, and all observers, that you mean
business." A year later, Quigley had a target in mind. His Herald documented
Mary Pickford's shock when she discovered her teenage niece "singing bits
J O O O
from that song from Diamond Lil." The sweetheart of silent screen explained,
"I say 'that song' just because I'd blush to quote the title line here." Para-
mount countered with its own interview with Pickford, in which Little
Mary professed admiration for Mae: "I like her because she is so low down.
So real and natural."5
Reeling in Mae West just as she was bringing Paramount unprecedented
profits, gaining more fans daily, and influencing everything from the nation's
fashions to its language was going to be difficult. Determined to hold West
O O O O
to the Code, Hays and his underlings maintained a vigilant watch over I'm No
Angel. Previewing drafts of the script and song lyrics, they bombarded the
studio with mandated cuts and revisions. At the end of June, after weeks of
correspondence, James Wingate informed Paramount that "as to theme, the
story seems to present no difficulties but of course, it will depend very
largely on the way in which many of the scenes are treated." He stressed that
the censors would withhold their "final opinion" until they viewed the fin-
ished product. The censors faced a challenging situation: They were at-
tempting to rein in West's signifying. Due to its subversive essence, it was

extremely difficult to harness.6
As in the past, Paramount attempted to dodge the censor, submitting in-
complete material—scripts with missing scenes and dialogue. But the Hays
Office held its oground. Receiving o
onlyJ the title to a songo called "No One Does
It Like That Dallas Man," it immediately declared the number unacceptable.
The studio appealed and sent lyrics. Discovering such lines as "He's a wild
horse trainer, with a special whip; gals, you'll go insaner," the censors refused
to reconsider. Studio executives persisted, claiming that all "the Dallas man
does is kiss, hug the ladies, and ride a horse." The wrangling ended only after
' O ' O O J
"loves me" replaced "does it" and the rest of the lyrics were sanitized. In the
film, West resorted to humming through parts of the song, which, in the end,
allowed the audience to imagine their own bawdy rhymes.7
The Hays Office was particularly alarmed about a scene where Tira, still a
sideshow performer, appears on a runway. As she parades past a group of
gawking men, a carnival barker shouts out that she is "the only girl who has
satisfied more patrons than Chesterfields." The line had to go, the censors in-
sisted. They also cautioned that Tira's midway song and dance had to be
"handled carefully." Anticipating trouble, the costume department created
two versions of her dress, one so outrageously daring that it guaranteed they
would pass the other, a sheer bodysuit with key parts of her anatomy dis-
guised only by beadwork.
Into July, the Hays office continued with numerous deletions and alter-
ations. They prohibited West from singing "I Want You, I Need You" as a
blues song, insisting it be delivered as a ballad. They put the studio on notice
that her line "From now on I don't want no part of you" had to be carefully
spoken "in order to avoid giving it any suggestive inference." Their extreme
caution revealed the power of Westian signification—that any line could be
made to mean almost anything. She chortled about how the censors had even
axed material that was perfectly innocent, reading their own double mean-
ings into it.8
O
In July, as the Hays Office issued another round of missives, I'm No Angel
began shooting. Paramount selected an experienced director, Wesley Rug-
gles, to guide the controversial production. This time Travis Banton de-
signed
o
her o
gowns,' assured that she had no hard feelings o
over her clash with
his uncle Joab Banton. Producer William Le Baron assigned Gary Grant to
play Jack Clayton, Tira's major love interest. Gregory Ratoff, a Broadway ac-
tor, played Tira's attorney, and Edward Arnold, a veteran of many films, was
cast as Bigo
Bill Barton,' a circus owner. Paramount recruited four African-
American women to play Tira's maids. One went uncredited, but Gertrude
174 M A E * W E S T
Howard, in films since 1914, and Hattie McDaniel, who later won an Acad-
emy Award for her performance in Gone With the Wind, were experienced
actresses. The fourth slot went to Libby Taylor, who continued as West's
real-life maid. West secured small roles for two other friends: Edward
Hearn, who had appeared in The Drag and The Pleasure Man, and Morrie Co-
hen, a prizefight promoter. When Sidney Skolsky dropped by the set, she
used him as an extra. Even Boogey got a scene.
Despite her early professed abhorrence of Hollywood's wastefulness,
West insisted that this time filming proceed carefully and deliberately. Skol-
sky noted the total control she exerted; she revised the script repeatedly, de-
manding that many scenes be reshot. She spent hours grilling Ruggles and
reviewing daily rushes. She was absolutely meticulous. Reportedly, she in-
sisted on redoing one song eighteen times before she was satisfied. Ruggles
had been happy after the sixth take.
While she was pleasant to other performers and traded wisecracks with
the crew, she generally maintained her distance on the lot. She refused to
dine in the studio commissary and had lunch delivered to her dressing room.
Duringtobreaks,' she retreated to her bungalow
o
to go
o
over production
r
details,'
surrounded by Libby Taylor, Boris Petroff, and Jim Timony. Although his
power was declining, Timony still attempted to control Mae. During the
filming, he announced, without her consent, that she was not giving inter-
views. When she found out, she was furious and overrode his order. Jok-
ingly, some studio workers tacked a sign reading "Timony Hall" to her
dressingo room door.9
Finally, after numerous delays, on September 16, Paramount previewed
I'm No Angel for James Wingate. Afterward, Wingate telegrammed the Hays
Office that with some deletions it would meet the Code, noting that it was
"on the whole much better than we expected." Paramount made the changes
and rescreened the film for Vincent Hart,' the censors' legal
o
counsel. In a let-
ter to the Hays Office, he raved that it would "be box office to the nth degree"
and predicted that West's newest lines would be on everyone's lips. While he
anticipated some criticism, he announced, "I'm for it irrespective!"10
On October i 2, 1933, I'm No Angel made its Hollywood debut at Sid
Grauman's Chinese Theater. Grauman personally oversaw the evening's pro-
gram, called Under the Big Top, which featured clowns, a dog act, trained
seals, a tightrope walker, and other circus performers. Streets around the
theater were packed. As traffic backed up for blocks, "thirty thousand citi-
zens howled in [sic] Hollywood Boulevard." Police were called in to control
the mob. According to the Los Angeles Times, when West arrived, resplendent
in furs,' diamonds,' and lace gown,
o '
"she got
o
one of the biggest
oo
hands from the
IF YOU CAN T GO S T R A I G H T , YOU VE GOT TO GO A R O U N D I ~f $
street crowd ever." She took the microphone and announced that she was
happy to be where "the stars leave their fingerprints . . . I mean footprints."
The crowd "roared."1'
I'm No Angel was one of Hollywood's biggest premieres of the early De-
pression era. All of Paramount's executives and all of the film's stars were
present—even Libby Taylor, described as "gloriously bedecked in yellow
velvet and gardenias" but forced, because of de facto Hollywood segregation,
to remain backstage. Yet newspapers noted most of Tinsel Town was visibly
absent; the Los Angeles Times interpreted the meager star turnout as evidence
of "cold shouldering" from Hollywood's elite. Later, Sidney Skolsky
lamented when an announcer at another Hollywood function purposefully
ignored West's presence. Many attributed it to jealousy; others contended
that she was ostracized because she counted gays, boxers, wrestlers, and
African Americans as close friends. Some viewed it as a protest against the
woman who was bringing the censors' wrath down on Hollywood. Marlene
Dietrich commented, "I like Mae, but it is all her fault that we have the Hays
Office and this childish censorship. So American—to see sex everywhere
and then try to hide it."
Publicly, West fired back. Citing the presence of socialites at the pre-
miere, she remarked, "Personally, I don't care whether people in pictures
come to see me or not, but I sure would feel bad if the society people
weren't there. . . . I always try to play to the best." She later dismissed the
Hollywood crowd as "sodden, gilded people." Regardless of the snubs, she
could take heart in the response of the opening night audience, which one
journalist described as rolling "with hilarity and enthusiasm."12
I'm No Angel gave the public what it wanted—more laughs, more of Mae
West, and even more of her playful sayings. It moved West out of the gay
nineties into a modern setting where Diamond Lil reappeared as Tira, the
"marvel of the age." The carnival barker declares, "With the right kind of en-
O ' O
couragement, she'll throw discretion to the wind and her hips to the north,
east, south and west," as Tira slinks down the runway into a tent with hordes
of men eagerly following her. Once inside West resurrected one of the oldest
O J O
elements of her act, the cooch. As Tira grinds away, singing "They Call Me
' O J' O O J
Sister Honkey Tonk," she asks the male audience, "Am I making myself clear,
boys?" They whistle; they cheer. Under her breath she mutters, "Suckers."13
After the show, she rendezvous with a member of the audience, Ernest
Brown, a Dallas man who sports an impressively large diamond ring. As she
croons to him, her jealous boyfriend, a pickpocket named Slick Wiley,
bursts in and knocks Brown out cold. Believing Brown is dead, they try to
flee, but the police nab Slick. To get money for a lawyer, Tira agrees to take
176
Ij6 M A E * WEST
over a lion-taming o
act in exchangeo
for a loan from Bigo
Bill Barton. The act is
a sensation,' and before long o
she becomes a big-time
o
circus star,' entertaining
o
crowds with her total command of the lions. When she daringly puts her
head in a lion's mouth, a sailor in the audience remarks, "If those lions don't
show some sense, I'm goin' down there and bite her myself."
Tira's act becomes a favorite diversion for slumming blue bloods. In par-
ticular, the wealthy Kirk Lawrence is completely captivated by her. But out-
side her dressing room, where the high-society crowd gathers, his jealous
fiancee, Alicia Hatton, denounces Tira as "crude and ill-bred." She contends,
"She would impress the men; they all have low minds and she's certainly low
enough to appeal to them." Hearing this, Tira sips some water, opens her
door, and spits on the unsuspecting Hatton.
With her success under the big top and generous gifts from her new
beau, Lawrence, Tira secures a luxurious apartment and four black maids.
Hatton, determined to win back Lawrence, arrives, attempting to buy Tira
off. "I'll trouble you to scram," Tira says, pushing her out the door as two
maids look on approvingly. Then, crossing the room, nonchalantly she com-
mands, "Oh Beulah, peel me a grape."14
Lawrence's cousin, Jack Clayton, also pays her a visit, attempting to con-
vince the circus queen to end the relationship. But he becomes entranced by
her. The feeling is mutual, and Tira quickly abandons Lawrence for his even
richer cousin. "I could be your slave," Clayton tells her. "Well," she muses, "I
guess that could be arranged." She immediately accepts Clayton's marriage
proposal. Barton, who fears matrimony will end Tira's lucrative career,
plots to break up the affair. While Tira is out, he plants the recently released
Slick Wiley in her apartment. Clayton discovers the ex-convict there in silk
pajamas and calls the wedding off.
Heartbroken, Tira sues Clayton for breach of promise. At the trial, Clay-
ton's attorney calls a number of men who testify that Tira had defrauded
them. She insists on cross-examining toeach one,' devastating
O them on the wit-
ness stand. When Beulah testifies, Clayton realizes his mistake and agrees to
an immediate settlement. As the courtroom clears out, a female reporter
asks Tira, "Why did you admit to knowing so many men?" The circus star
replies, "It's not the men in my life, but the life in my men." Shortly after-
ward, Clayton turns up at her apartment, professing his love. He kisses Tira,
and as the screen fades to black,' she sings,o'
"I can make it heaven when the
shades are down; I'm no angel, believe me."
For all of Hays's attempts to control Mae West, she had succeeded in cre-
ating one of the most popular as well as subversive films of her cinematic ca-
reer. In the end, West slipped in dialogue and action that made this film far
more suggestive than She Done Him Wrong. When dancing with Ernest Brown,
she pushes him back, looks below his waist, and remarks, "You put your heart
and soul into your dancing, don't you, honey?" Resisting Barton's attempts to
force her into lion taming,o7 she exclaims,' "Who's sticking
o whose head in whose
mouth?" As predicted, movie fans borrowed liberally from the film's dialogue.
"When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better," a line that the
censors had tried to delete, became a famous Westianism. "Peel me a grape"
quickly made its way into American slang. While many have speculated that
this Westianism carried a covertly sexual message, Mae laughed. It was in-
spired, she revealed, by Boogey, who only ate peeled grapes.15
Although I'm No Angel was rowdy and bawdy, it also furthered West's seri-
ous exploration of class, gender, and race. Tira's rise to fame and fortune as
she "climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong" was conveyed through a
twisting tale that reinforced and challenged American values. In many ways,
she affirmed the American Dream. Tira's success and wealth result from her
hard work and ingenuity. Even her gifts are hard earned. She is an indepen-
dent and self-supporting woman, her income mostly derived from her ca-
reer. If anything, Tira is ambitious, and that pays off.
But other aspects of I'm No Angel counter this celebration of the American
myth of success. Like other Westian characters, Tira finds that while money
is nice, it does not bring happiness, and like the star Mae West, she refuses to
sell out and join the elite. She retains her working-class drawl throughout;
she stays "regular." Depression-era audiences were probably a little shocked
and a little gleeful to see Tira spit on Alicia Hatton. It was a stunning mo-
ment of .Tproletarian rage.
O
Some have discerned the autobiographical nature of Tira's climb, replicat-

ing West's ascent from cooch dancer to Hollywood star. The manipulative
Big Bill Barton, in many ways, paralleled Timony. Additionally, West's os-
tracism from the Hollywood aristocracy paralleled Tira's marginalization.
And certainly, Tira's success in the circus was a metaphor for West's achieve-
ments in filmdom. Tira works with dangerous predators, all male; her step-
ping into a cage of lions named Big Boy, Romeo, and Gussie it echoed West's
battles in an industry controlled by male studio bosses and male censors.
West understood her role as a lion tamer in terms of resistance to patri-
archy. She viewed her preoccupation with lion taming as a manifestation of
her own "animal instincts"—her connectedness to primitivism. West was im-
mersed in astrology and rationalized that her birth sign, Leo the Lion, shaped
her personal qualities. Additionally, she remained transfixed by the relation-
ship between power and violence played out in the lion tamer's ring. In her
mind, it reflected the struggle
7
OO
between the genders
O
and linked sex with vio-
178 M A E * W E S T
lence. In the ring, Tira cracks her whip and shoots her gun, intimidating the
cats into submission. It reinforced Tira's—and West's—image o
as a strongo
woman who feared nothing and conquered not only lions but also men.16
Although focused on the conventional theme of a woman pursuing a man
for fulfillment, much of the film attempted to empower women. At many
levels, West constructed Tira for the female spectator. When a female so-
cialite praises her as "perfectly wonderful," Tira replies, "Coming from a
woman that's a compliment." While West's character is superior to every-
one, she does embrace a notion of sisterhood through women's shared expe-
riences. "Find 'em, fool 'em, and forget 'em," Tira advises a lovelorn female
t 7 O
friend. Women continued to project themselves into this cinematic heroine.

The New York Herald Tribune observed that at least two-thirds of I'm No Angel's
audience was women. The Kansas City Star summed up the source of her fe-
male appeal as "woman triumphant, ruthless and unscrupulously tri-
umphant, over poor, blundering, sinipleminded men."17
I'm No Angel also revealed West's continuing preoccupation with race.
Again, the message pivoted around the acceptance and rejection of racist as-
sumptions. As before, the black maid affirmed the Westian character's
whiteness as well as signifying her wealth. On her ascent, Tira first secures
the services of Beulah. Once she reaches the top, she adds more maids, sym-
bolizing her immense material success. Attired in dark uniforms, in contrast
to Tira's light-colored sequined gowns, the maids highlight her link to a glit-
tering fantasy of white womanhood.
Equally instrumental in establishing Westian whiteness were publicity re-
leases that reinforced Libby Taylor's role as both Tira's and West's maid. Ob-
scuring the two women's previous friendship, the studio claimed that West
had approached Actors' Equity looking for an unemployed actress to serve as
her real-life maid in New York in winter of 193 3. Another story claimed that
Taylor happily surrendered her acting career to serve La West. This racist fic-
tion both on and off the screen redoubled West's claims to whiteness.18
Furthermore, the roles created for Taylor, Howard, and McDaniel, all pro-
ficient actresses, reentrenched racist notions. They appeared simpleminded,
jolly, and overjoyed to work for Tira. Specifically, Howard's portrayal of Beu-
lah, with rolling eyes and exaggerated smile, evoked the most derogatory of
black stereotypes. Tira disparages Beulah, whom she calls "shadow," using her
for the most mundane and difficult tasks—like peeling grapes.
But I'm No Angel is more complex than a straightforward reiteration of
racism. While seemingly simple, Beulah actually possesses more refinement
and knowledge o
than Tira. Tira orders Beulah to bringo her "beads." Beulah,'
realizing she is asking for one of her strings or priceless diamonds, corrects
Tira, asking, "You mean that pretty necklace?" Tira self-consciously mutters, "I
will say beads." Furthermore, Beulah is no fool. She possesses, like West's
other black female characters,' innate wisdom. She has insightso
into Tira's in-
ner self, perceptively anticipating her employer's reactions and emotions. At
the trial, it is clear, no one understands Tira better than Beulah. And while re-
ferring to Beulah as "shadow" reinforced racism, it also signaled a link between
Tira and her black maid, between the black and white characters emerging
7
O O
from and blendingo togethero

in West's racist imagination.
o
Beulah is not an
African-American maid; she is Tira's shadow, an extension and reflection of
the circus queen's (and West's) white self that clearly demonstrated how white
fictional blackness functioned as a reflection of the white psyche.
West's connections to fantasized blackness are also apparent in other as-
pects of I'm No Angel. The Hays Office attempted to curtail her blues style,
but it remained in her rendition of the film's songs, especially prevalent as
Tira prepares for an evening on the town. Tira appears in a black gown that
contrasts with her maids' now-white uniforms. They pamper, coif, and bedi-
zen Tira, sharing in her discussion about men and romance. When Tira
breaks into a bluesy song, "I Found a New Way to Go to Town," she beckons
Howard and Taylor to join in. Together the three strut in line across the
apartment, singing as a trio and borrowing from the African-American tra-
dition of call and response. To Tira's "It takes a good man to break me," Tay-
lor replies, "Sure does." And when the circus star sings, "No man can shake
me," Howard observes, "I knows it." As they finish, the three women collapse
together in hearty laughter. In this shared moment, these imaginary black
and white women become musically fused. Later, as she attempts to seduce
Jack Clayton, Tira looks over her shoulder and asks Howard and Taylor,
"How am I doin'?""Just fine, just fine," affirms Howard. As the maids exit,
Tira remarks to Clayton, "Great gals aren't they?"
West even sneaked in one of the filmdom's most taboo topics—miscegena-
tion. Early in the film, Tira admires a collage of her former lovers' photos lin-
ing the top of her trunk. Among the snapshots of sailors, acrobats, boxers,
athletes, and men in business suits is a portrait of an African-American man. In
profile, Tira's muscular black lover sits on a block, clad only in dark shorts, his
head down. Certainly, West chose the photo for its artistic composition—it
stands out from the rest—and its sensuality dramatizes her notion that the
African-American male was more physical and erotic than European-American
men, reasserting her belief in primitivism and its superiority. However, Tira's
black lover also remains exiled to a far corner of her montage.o
While the African-American lover's photograph enhanced Tira's sinful-
ness and exoticism, it also served as a covert rebellion against white society's
l8o M A E * W E S T
abhorrence of miscegenation.
o
Interracial love between black men and white
women was strictly excluded from Hollywood films, and West's use of this
photo was a defiant act against this racist restriction. While it clearly by-
passed Hays, studio officials, movie reviewers, and probably most film
fans—in most scenes only an edge is visible—it stood as a quiet revolt
against racist ideology. It functioned as yet another of the trickster's pranks,
a rejection of society's racial divisions that never quite escaped racism.
I'm No Angel, the pinnacle of West's film career, represented some of her
most efficient deployment of the African-American tradition of significa-
tion. Language play ran rampant in the film. Although many probably missed
the multiple meanings, almost everyone knew something was up. One re-
viewer decided that West did not create sayings but rather "epigrams," puz-
zles to be deciphered for their satirical messages and double meanings. The
film's promotional campaign tutored viewers in the art of West's significa-
tion with contests encouraging fans to write witticisms for Mae. "It's easy to
do, so do it every way you can think of. The more ways, the more fun," it ad-
vised. This compelled fans to engage in their own subversive language play.19
I'm No Angel proved an instant hit. Around the country it broke box office
records. In Boston, one journalist reported that the lines outside the theater
extendingo down several blocks looked like a "run on the neighboringo o
bank."
In Chicago, where the film ran twenty hours a day, patrolmen had to call out
reserve officers to help them control the crowds. New York's Paramount
Theater also added extra showings o
and held the film over for several weeks.
Some patrons attended several times; the audience laughed so uproariously
that diehard fans returned again
o
and again
o
to catch all the lines. West was as
popular as ever; she had become one of Hollywood's biggest stars.20
Critics were less enthusiastic. Many declared I'm No Angel inferior to She
Done Him Wrong. Several decried the modern setting, contending that West
was better suited and less dangerous
o
as a denizen of the ogayJ
nineties. Others
complained that she hogged the screen and some charged that the film bor-
dered on bad taste. But the New York Times's Mordaunt Hall gave it a ringing en-
dorsement. "It is rapid fire entertainment," he wrote, "with shameless but
thoroughly contagious humor and one in which Tira is always mistress of the
situation, whether it be in the cage of wild beasts, in her boudoir with admir-
ers or in a court of law." Despite Hays's efforts, West retained, as one reviewer
cheerfully celebrated, "her crudeness, vulgarity, and irrepressible gusto."21
I'm No Angel outraged the reform minded. Martin Quigley condemned it
as "morally objectionable" and declared that there was "no more pretense
here of romance than a stud-farm." One film patron wrote New Movie Maga-
zine complaining, "Her talks and lyrics are in many cases an affront and insult
to good morals. . . . Why go backward just to attract those that have not ad-
vanced with civilization?" The Tampa Tribune branded the film a "bad picture
for youth." They were offended that Tira, for all her lascivious behavior,
"does not come to grief—far from it. ... The picture parades pleasure and
plenty as the perquisites of prostitution—and, as such is vile and evil in its
impairment to the young."22
West retorted that her unpunished wantonness was her biggest drawing
card. "The movies, in picturing erring women as doomed to suffer heart-
break and misery, have been only half right," she told a reporter. "Maybe
years ago that situation prevailed. But not today. People are more broad-
minded." This was a new age for women. According to West, they could en-
joy themselves—they no longer had to "pay and pay."23
West still had plenty of support. The New York Herald Tribune rated her "as
much one of the major phenomena of 1933 as the NRA, The Three Little Pigs,
or Senator Huey Long." Kirk Russell still maintained that she had more sup-
porters than detractors. He acknowledged the growing protest against her
films but also noted that she enjoyed unprecedented popularity with movie
fans. He reported that her film helped reopen a bankrupt theater in Pitts-
burgh, giving employment to over twenty people. He cited those who hailed
the rise of the Mae West film as coinciding with the fall of the gangster
O D O
genre, which many censorship advocates had considered one of the most
pernicious influences on modern society. In one daily report, entitled
"Who's Afraid of Big Bad Mae," Russell highlighted one newspaper's claim
that "breadlines were giving way to theater lines" thanks to Mae West. De-
spite the block-booking controversy, he pointed out that exhibitors were
scurrying to rebook I'm No Angel. Furthermore, the medical community de-
clared that "Mae's ideas are ogood for women's health." In Russell's view,' I'm
No Angel, while controversial, was doing more good than harm. 24
By late 1933, She Done Him Wrong ranked as one of the year's top-grossing
films, and I'm No Angel was not far behind. Named one of Hollywood's top
ten box office draws, West renegotiated her salary to, reportedly, $300,000
with a percentage of the box office proceeds and continued screenplay royal-
ties. Her new contract promised her two films annually for four years. It was
probably one of the most generous contracts offered to any star of the era
and testified to both West's popularity among filmgoers and her power
within the studio.
West used her good fortune to help family and friends. With Mae's assis-
tance, Beverly first starred in a New York City radio show and then later
toured the country in vaudeville as a Mae West impersonator. Mae also cam-
paigned for the release of Owney Madden, who had been returned to Sing
l82 M A E * W E S T
Sing for parole violations. In another instance, she called on California gov-
ernor Jim Rolph to block extradition of film projectionist and union leader
C. D. Cooper, who turned out to be an escaped convict from South Car-
olina. In a letter to Rolph she cited Cooper's good behavior and wrote,
"Now Jim, you know I know men." It served as free publicity and under-
scored the underworld ties that were components of both her real and imag-
ined selves.25
This image was further strengthened when on November 27, 1933, the
LAPD arrested Edward "Happy" Friedman, a Chicago gangster and longtime
associate of Harry Voiler. After thirty-six hours of interrogation, the mob-
ster confessed to the Mae West jewel heist, implicating Voiler as the master-
mind and another Detroit ogango member,' Morris Cohen (no v
relation to
Mae's boxing friend Morrie Cohen), as his accomplice. The police then took
Friedman to the Ravenswood, where West identified him as the thief.
The news of Friedman's arrest broke on December £. For those following
West's career, the gangster's confession was not a complete surprise. As
early as September, Los Angeles newspapers hinted that Voiler had been in-
volved in the West robbery. (The reports coincided with the mysterious
death of West's beloved Boogey, who had been poisoned, possibly a message
from the underworld.) When Texas Guinan passed through town that fall,
West would not see her; most likely she blamed Texas for the Voiler predica-
ment. (It was a breach that never healed, since Guinan died that November.)
In December, West publicly revealed she had been suspicious of Voiler, who
by that time had fled to Chicago. "I guess you might as well say," she re-
marked, "he has been a friend in the grass."26
' O
Voiler fought extradition, and Cohen remained on the lam. Shortly after
testifying before a grand jury, Friedman hired Voiler's attorney, W. V. Clark,
to represent him. He recanted his confession, charging that the LAPD had
subjected him to brutal beatings, and announced his refusal to testify against
Voiler. West pushed on with the case. After she received anonymous threats,
the police provided her with two armed bodyguards. When reporters
pressed her about the risks of taking on the underworld, she replied,
"Afraid? Not a bit. . . . I owe this duty to my public, they believe in me. I'm
just another citizen doing my duty. If I get my jewels back all the better be-
cause I'll give them to charity."27
When Friedman's trial began on January i £, 1934, all eyes were on the
nation's most famous star. During her first day in court, she appeared in a
black silk gown
O
and sable furs. A photographer
1 O 1
asked her to pose
1 O
giving
O
a fa-
mous roll of her eyes; she, the ever-savvy self-promoter, replied, "Sure, I'm
no angel."
o
Once on the stand,' she furthered the blending o
of the star and fic-
Resting place of Copley family,
including Martin Copley
(180^—187^), great-grandfather
of Mae West, Holy Cross
Catholic Cemetery,
Brooklyn, New York.
Photo: Jillian Martin.
Delker family burial site, including Christiana ( 1 8 3 8 - 1 9 0 1 ) and Jacob (i 83£--i9o2) Delkcr,
maternal grandparents of Mae West, Lutheran Cemetery, Middle Village, New York.
Photo: Jillian Martin.

Mae West (far right)
and Frank Wallace
(center), c. 1910.
Possibly with sister,
Beverly (far left, second
row) and mother,
Tillie (far left, top row).
African-American
woman at top and the
rest unidentified.
Wisconsin Center for Film
and Theater Research.
In vaudeville, October 1912.
Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.

Bert Williams in non-blackface
publicity pose.
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture

Arts and Sciences.
Eva Tanguay.
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture

Arts and Sciences.
The inscription reads: "The Golf Hounds: May West, Orpheurn, Denny Wiley,
Oakland Right Fielder, Harvey Harper, Pitcher, Mable Thomas, Pat Conners."
1918,
-^ '
Los Angeles.
o
Gift of Stephen Deyo.
In 19 2 7, on release from
Welfare Island, with prison
warden Harry O. Schleth.
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion

Picture Arts and Sciences.
Mae West with attorney and
Tammany leader Nathan Burkan
on her right
o
during
o
the Pleasure
Man trial, 1930.

With Texas Guinan during

o
the
Pleasure Man trial, 1930.

With hatcheck (unidentified actress) in Night After Night, 1932.
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In the early 19308.
Courtesy of the Academy of

Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
With Lowell Sherman on set
of She Done Him Wrong, 1933.

As Lady Lou (Diamond Lil) with Gary Grant as Captain Cummings, She Done
Him Wrong, 1933.
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In Ravens wood bedroom,
19308.

Pictures Arts and Sciences.
I'm No Angel, 1933. Tira shows Thelma (Dorothy Peterson) a collage of her lovers, including
portrait of African American on far left.
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

With Libby Taylor, 1934.

With Duke Ellington and his orchestra. Belle of the Nineties, 1934.
Chalky Wright, police detective

Harry Dean disguised as Mae West,
and police bodyguard Jack Southern
in 1
93S attempt to trap extortionist.
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Pictures
Arts and Sciences.
With Daisy Jones, c. 1934.
As Frisco Doll with Chan Lo (Harold Huber) in Klondike Annie, 193^.
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences

John (brother) and Jack (father) West at a prizefight in Los Angeles, 1934.
Los Angeles Times Photograph Collection, UCLA Department of Special Collections.
With Jim Timony, 1942.

Los Angeles Times Photograph
Collection, UCLA Department
of Special Collections.
Reading from playscript during
Catherine Was Great Iplagiarism
O
trial, 1948.
Los Angeles Daily News Photograph

Collection, UCLA Department of
Special Collections.
Diamond Lil revival, 1949.

Las Vegas muscleman act, 19^4.
Courtesy of the Academy of
Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
In Santa Monica
beach house
bedroom, 19608.
Courtesy of
the Academy of
Motion Pictures
Arts and Sciences.
With Paul Novak, 1978.

Accepting UCLA's Woman of the Century Award, 197 i .

IF YOU C A N ' T GO S T R A I G H T , Y O U ' V E GOT TO GO A R O U N D 183
tional character, calmly recounting the stickup. When Clark alleged that the
robbery was a publicity stunt and that the missing diamond ring was itself
stolen, she maintained her cool, appearing straightforward, intelligent, and,
of course, alluring. Newspaper headlines read, "Lawyer Baffled by Miss
West" and "Actress' Wiggle Creates Courtroom Sensation." To prove police
coerced Friedman's confession, Clark questioned her on his client's condi-
tion when she identified him. Shown a picture of Friedman shirtless and
bruised, Mae West replied, "You know, Mr. Clark, that I have never seen any-
thing but this defendant's face." Laughter filled the courtroom.28
The trial played out like a Mae West movie. Reporters and fans crowded
the courthouse hoping to get a seat or just a glimpse of the celebrity, now
under heavy police guard. Newspapers reported that a delegation of menac-
ing Chicago gangsters had arrived in town. Officers discovered Harry
O O O O J
Voiler's cousin lurking in the courthouse halls. Death threats proliferated—

not only against West but also against Friedman, who was now hustled
around under tight security. When he finally took the stand, he steadfastly
proclaimed his innocence. He also insisted Jim Timony had paid him ten
dollars for his grand jury testimony against Voiler.
On February 2, after only three hours of deliberation, the jury found
Friedman guilty. He was sentenced to two years in San Quentin. Cohen was
never arrested, and Voiler attempted to escape to Havana to elude prosecu-
tion. Rumors circulated that Chicago's crimeland had threatened to throw
O
acid in West's face. District Attorney Buron Fitts assigned two detectives,
Jack Southern and Jack Criss, to provide her with ongoing protection.
Newspapers praised her bravery and willingness to "fight in the open" against
criminals who preyed on Hollywood celebrities. Boldly West declared, "It is
time someone called their bluff—and it looks like it will have to be me."29
Of course, West was not new to underworld dealings. It is likely that
whatever transpired publicly was just a hint of a power struggle between
Chicagoans, the Detroit mob, and the New York crime syndicate, still under
Owney Madden. Friedman's attorney claimed that Timony had a deep
"grudge" against Voiler, intimating that the former barrister set up the De-
troit gangster. Regardless, it allowed West to continue to build herself into,
as she described it, a "super woman" who was smarter than even the most
skilled trial attorneys and unafraid of even the most violent criminals.30
West insisted the trial had provided her with inspiration for a new script.
In reality, she had already begun it in October 1933, well before Friedman's
arrest. The new film was to be called It Ain't No Sin. While its plot did con-
tain a jewel heist, it was really a veiled adaptation of Babe Gordon with all
overt references to miscegenation banished.
184 M A E * WEST
In West's first drafts, her central character, Ruby Carter, is a former lady
of the evening who has beaten murder and theft charges in 18908 St. Louis.
Soon she leaves crime behind to become the city's most worshiped burlesque
queen. Ruby falls for an up-and-coming prizefighter, an ex-con named Tiger
Kid, but their affair is broken up by his ambitious manager. She accepts an en-
gagement in New Orleans,' at Ace Lament's Sensation House. Lament falls in
o o
love with her and competes for her heart and more with another local, the
wealthy socialite Brooks Claybourne. In the end, she is reunited with Tiger,
who kills the unscrupulous Lament. To cover the murder, Ruby and Tiger
set the Sensation House on fire and flee as an African-American spiritual
plays behind them. As they sail off on a Mississippi riverboat, Tiger asks,
"Where do we go from here?" Ruby replies, "Didn't your mother tell you
anything?"31
In spring 1934, just as West's latest film was getting off the ground, pres-
sure on the chief censor escalated. Growing impatient with what they con-
sidered escalatingo cinematic licentiousness and the studios' evasions of the
Production Code, Catholic leaders mobilized. In November, the Conference
of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., organized the Legion of Decency,
dedicated to combating indecency in films. The Legion threatened to boy-
cott movies deemed immoral by the church and required parishioners to
pledge to patronize only wholesome films. Soon Protestant and Jewish lead-
ers joined the cause. Hays was alarmed. The growing push for censorship
threatened the film industry's tradition of self-regulation as well as the prof-
its that the recent movies had generated. It became apparent that for Hays to
survive and for the industry to retain some measure of independence, the
censor's office would have to be drastically reorganized.
The first step consisted of demoting Wingate, whom Catholic leaders and
other reformers viewed as thoroughly ineffective. In Wingate's place, Hays
appointed Joseph Breen, a devout Catholic and former journalist with strong
connections to the church's leadership. Breen was allotted broad oversight
of all Hollywood productions, fortified by a new system that permitted dis-
tribution of only those films bearing the censors' official certificate of ap-
proval. On the one hand, Hays hoped Breen would appease the Catholic
Church. On the other hand, since the studios paid Breen's salary, they felt
certain that they could court him as they had previous Hays Office represen-
tatives. But it became clear that Breen felt no allegiance to Hollywood. In
fact, he despised and distrusted studio bosses. Virulently anti-Semitic, he
privately referred to the Jewish studio heads, who led the industry, as a
"dirty, filthy lot," contending that they were "crazed with sex." Although
press releases identified West as of Irish, German, and French background,
IF YOU C A N T GO STRAIGHT, Y O U V E GOT TO GO AROUND
rumors that she possessed Jewish heritage circulated widely and could not
have helped in her dealings with Breen.32
As Breen took office, many speculated that it marked a new era for film-
makers. Although numerous other film projects sat on his desk, Breen deter-
mined that La West was not going to slip anything past him and made It Ain't
No Sin a top priority. Many speculated that Breen's heavy hand would be her
ruin. One newspaper ran a cartoon picturing West teetering fearfully on a
cliff, the caption reading, "With censorship, what now, Mae?" The answer
was clear. Breen's office immediately began ordering cuts and deletions.33
West fought back with attempts to muddle the censorship issue. Publicly,
she announced her support of censorship. "If I am told to take out a line," she
attested, "I take it out without argument." But she also affirmed her intention
to resist the censors. She warned that increased censorship would only com-
pel her to imply—to signify—her meanings even more covertly. "I can re-
ally accomplish a lot with a scene today with the little innuendoes, and
depending not so much on what I may actually say and do, but on the reac-
tion of the other characters," she confided to a reporter. Privately, she was
angered by the attempts to alter her work. When censors asked her to inter-
pret ambiguous dialogue, in signifying fashion she scoffed, "I can't tell you
because it isn't something you can explain by numbers. You take it or leave
it." Breen was determined to take it.34
To combat Breen's campaign, she peppered the script with outlandish vio-
lations of the Code. She calculated that censors would focus on these blatantly
scandalous components and miss her work's subtleties. In a scene Breen im-
mediately deleted, a bellhop peeks under Ruby's skirt, remarking, "I always
wondered just how far up you wore your garters." She even offered up an in-
terracial love song entitled "Creole Man" about a "hotter than hot" paramour
with "warm high brown skin." Of course, it never made it into the film. 35
At the same time, Paramount, to assure Breen that they were following
the Code, brought out New York studio executive John Hammell to act as
the film's personal censor. When filming commenced in March, despite
Breen's rejection of its story as a "vulgar and highly offensive yarn which is
quite patently a glorification of prostitution and violent crime without any
compensating moral values," Hammell was on the set each day, reportedly
supervising each scene. Several publications noted his presence; Skolsky re-
ported that the studio was "trying to keep this one as clean as possible."36
Paramount also tried to counter censorship's rising tide with a campaign
designed to rally public sentiment. Certainly not every moviegoer embraced
Mae West, but she entered 1934 as one of Hollywood's biggest stars. That
year She Done Him Wrong earned an Academy Award nomination for best pic-
I 86 M A E * WEST
ture; it lost but remained a picture-house favorite. If Paramount could con-

vince the public that Mae West was a victim in the censorship battles, it
would give the studio the upper hand.
In part, this strategy worked. While some fan magazines ran letters sup-
porting censorship, others exploded with indignation over Breen's tamper-
ing. One publication cried, "Are they trying to make a Puritan out of Mae
West? . . . If they are, isn't it a crime?" Motion Picture Magazine's Gladys Hall
lashed out with seemingly sincere resentment: "They're trying to make a
lady out of Diamond Lil. They are trying to pose Lady Lou in a kitchen to
put an 'apron around her man spanned waist.' " She joined others who de-
cried censors' attempts to turn West into a traditional woman, sapping her
empowering energy. Since the movie magazines usually shared a close rela-
tionship with the studios, often operating as Hollywood's publicity arm, Hall
and others were not simply reflecting public sentiment but assisting Para-
mount in its struggle
oo
against
o
Breen. "Don't let them ruin youJ
Mae,"'
Hall
pleaded. "Don't let them make a first rate sinner into a second rate blond."37
Hays, Breen, and their assistants continually warned Paramount that
West's film would probably be rejected, urging the project's termination.
But filming on It Ain't No Sin continued. The movie's set remained restricted
to only those directly involved with the film; guards were stationed at the
soundstage's entrance. When journalists, angered at being shut out, began to
allege
es West had "gone
o high
o hat,"
' she o
granted several interviews and ex-
plained that the Voiler affair forced the studio to tighten security. Of course
the closed set not only protected West from unsavory gangsters but also
kept the Hays people in the dark regarding the film's progress.
Despite the censorship pressures, relations on the set were warm, and
West showered the cast and crew with generous gifts. She was pleased by the
film's director, Leo McCarey, a genial fellow who had worked with the Marx
Brothers and who allowed his comedic stars free rein. Additionally, camera-
man Karl Struss's cinematography delighted her. As a young photographer in
the 18908, Struss had specialized in women's portraits, and he understood
precisely the gay nineties look West wanted. An innovator, he artistically
used shadows, light, superimposed images, and unique camera angles. Most
important, he appreciated West's visual sense and was willing to work with
her suggestions.
oo
West's cast included three leading men—Roger Pryor, John Mack
Brown, and John Miljan—old friends Edward Hearn and Morrie Cohen,
and new acquaintances from the sporting world, among them her new body-
guard, wrestler Mike Mazurki. She created a much larger role for Libby Tay-
lor as Ruby's maid, Jasmine. West also demanded that Paramount hire Duke
Ellington and his orchestra to supply the film's soundtrack and play Ruby
Carter's band. Initially, Paramount refused, claiming that Ellington was too
expensive (although the studio had already used the band several times be-
fore). West recalled that they first assigned a white jazz band to the film and,
after her continued complaints, later offered her black extras to sit in and
mimic music played by white musicians. She held fast, insisting that "you
can't take white people and play black music." Later, both West and Elling-
ton attributed the studio's opposition more to racism than to finances. De-
spite Paramount's resistance, West won out, and not only did Ellington play
a visible role in the film, his orchestra provided all the music. Although
white songwriters Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnson were credited with the
film's score, Ellington substantially reworked the film's two central num-
bers, "My Old Flame" and "Troubled Waters."38
While West was filming It Ain't No Sin, her personal life passed through a
difficult period. Early in 1934, Beverly arrived in Los Angeles with her new
husband, Vladimir Baikoff, who was her vaudeville partner and Gregory
Ratoff's cousin. Although Mae's relationship with her sister remained strained,
she supported the newlyweds and rented a Ravenswood apartment for them.
Mae was bankrolling most of her inner circle, including Jim Timony, whose
duties continually shrank as she grew more powerful and famous. Signifi-
cantly, by the end of April, both Timony and Petroff had been barred
from the set, and West assumed complete control over her negotiations
on the lot.
Both West and Timony publicly denied a split, but his sudden absence
was conspicuous evidence of a rift. West insisted that he remained her in-
vestment manager while William Morris had taken on more responsibility
for her career. Still, she admitted to quarreling with Timony over business
matters. One journalist speculated that Timony's aggressive manner—he
had barged in on a meeting between two high-powered studio executives at
Paramount's commissary—may have compelled the studio to banish him.
Regardless, West, for the first time in her life, was in such secure circum-
stances that she could afford her own rebellion, asserting herself in private
life as she had in the public eye. Timony left the Ravenswood for a small
house behind the Hollytown Theater, where he and Petroff began producing
plays. He continued to advise West on investments, helping her secure a
large San Fernando Valley ranch.
Her liberation from Timony also allowed West to assume more control
over her personal life. Mike Mazurki, who claimed to have pursued a clan-
destine affair with West, maintained that Timony threatened every man who
came anywhere near her. With Timony's exit, West's love life picked up. She
188 * MAE * WEST
had a fling with the world heavyweight wrestling champion, Vincent Lopez,
and was also seen about town with the dashing young actor Jack Durant.
Mazurki also remembered West's other lovers, mostly boxers and wrestlers
of all races.
To complicate matters, Jack West, who had been living in Florida, turned
up in March. Mae refused to take time off while filming and dispatched John
Junior to meet their father at the depot. For a time, Jack had an apartment at
the Ravenswood, but soon Mae shuttled Jack and John, who had lost his stu-
dio job, out to her ranch. It was an impressive property with orange groves,
a large main house, two guest houses, stables, and racehorses. She purchased
the adjoining property for Beverly and her husband. Sometimes Jack joined
her at the studio, wandering the lot and chatting with employees and execu-
tives. Reportedly, he helped with It Ain't No Sin's fight scenes. Press releases
noted his colorful past as a prizefighter and described him as a "stocky, well-
built man, bearing none of the usual physiological mementos of the ring."39
West spent little time at her San Fernando Valley ranch, preferring her
tiny two-bedroom at the Ravenswood, now equipped with a steel door to
protect her from thieves and gangsters. Settling in permanently, she com-
pletely redecorated the apartment. Journalists who visited could not help
but remark on its uniqueness. A stunning shrine to the Westian character
and star image, the entire apartment was done in white and gold. Her
canopied bed was redone in gold with an upholstered pink headboard, its
cornice now trimmed in mirrors. Stark white polar bear rugs covered the
floor. In one corner stood a white baby grand piano. Columnist Hedda Hop-
per noted that even the fresh flowers accenting the decor were white.
Throughout the apartment, West's image was doubled and redoubled.
Photographs of the star abounded. A painting on one wall and a marble
statue in a corner displayed the nude La West. (Both were done by women
because Timony refused to commission male artists for the task.) Even
more impressive were the numerous gold-backed mirrors—on the walls,
on the tables,' above the bed—reflectingo a multitude of ogilded Mae Wests.
She was, in trickster fashion, everywhere but nowhere at all.
While to many the apartment appeared a narcissistic celebration, it func-
tioned, like everything else Westian, as a double message. Small and modest,
it was full of expensive, albeit nouveau riche, furnishings and decor, replicat-
ing but parodying a Hollywood celebrity palace. It also reinforced West's
obsession with whiteness. She continued to play with contrasts; for a photo
shoot in her newly redecorated abode, she donned a black gown. The apart-
ment, which she insisted was just like one of her movie sets, became still an-
other stage upon which West played with and in between extremes. Meeting
with author and screenwriter Anita Loos, West pulled up in a "chocolate-

colored Rolls Royce," her African-American driver and footman dressed in
dark brown uniforms. Inside the automobile, Loos found West engulfed in a
7
O
sea of white ostrich feathers.40

At the end of May, Paramount screened It Ain't No Sin for Breen. He in-
stantaneously rejected it, declaring it a flagrant violation of the Production
Code. At a meeting a few days later, Cohen pleaded with Breen not to put
his decision in writing and offered to make cuts in the film. In the past, cen-
sors, to protect studios' public image, had rarely documented their objec-
tions, but Breen, believing Cohen had conspired to conceal his activities
from Paramount's New York bosses, fired off a letter rejecting It Ain't No Sin
with carbon copies to all Paramount heads. Breen's action put filmmakers on
notice that the days of gentility were over and that he was willing to take
drastic action to enforce the Code.
Cohen, with McCarey and no doubt West, quickly reworked It Ain't No
Sin. On June 6, he rescreened it for Breen. In this version, Paramount
deleted all references to Ruby as an ex-prostitute and Tiger as an ex-con, as
well as a series of dissolves implying that the couple had not left her apart-
ment for five days—and five nights, of course. Satisfied, Breen approved the
film and informed Will Hays the picture was ready for release.
But when It Ain't No Sin was previewed in New York, the state censorship
board rejected the film outright. It caught Breen and Hays off guard, although
they should have known something was awry. When Catholic leaders saw
Paramount's Broadway billboards announcing It Ain't No Sin, they responded
with their own signs proclaiming, "IT IS." Across the country, moral guardians
had Ogarnered more power,
1 7increasing
O
their -Tpressure on state censor boards.
Like New York, Chicago condemned the film before it was even released.
7
O
Pennsylvania joined in, banning the film there. The furor compelled Para-
mount to rework it once more. As a public testament to their serious deter-
mination to clean up films, Breen and Hays ordered even more cuts.41
In early July, Paramount began revisions. Since New Yorkers had taken
such offense to the "it" in the original title, they renamed the film Belle of the
Nineties. McCarey refilmed several love scenes and edited other passages, and,
at Breen's insistence, they dropped the first ending and filmed a new one with
Ruby marrying Tiger. "It is Mae West's shotgun wedding by the censors,"
sighed Skolsky. With all these retakes, the production's budget ballooned to
$800,000, four times the amount it took to make She Done Him Wrong.*2
On August 3, Breen reported to Hays that he had seen the latest version
of West's film. He was satisfied that the "sex angle" had been expunged and
claimed only a few more cuts would "wash out the crime angle." Several days
190 M A E * W E S T
later, he issued a certificate of approval pending further deletions. In his daily

column, Skolsky gleefully proclaimed that the film was "still good entertain-
ment" and that the censors had missed several choice lines.43
On August 17, West's forty-first birthday, Belle of the Nineties debuted.
This time, Hollywood turned out in force for the premiere; good friend
Marlene Dietrich was highly visible, signing autographs for fans. West ar-
rived with a police escort and accompanied by bodyguards, the exiled Jim
Timony, and Boris Petroff. The entire West family showed up—Beverly
with her husband, John Junior, and Jack. The crowd outside the theater was
44
so large
O
that the LAPD called for backup. 1
In Belle of the Nineties's final version, Ruby Carter becomes a hard-work-

ing St. Louis burlesque queen. Her act, a throwback to nineteenth-century
artist model shows, consists of posing in skintight gowns in front of a series
of screens that transform her from a rose to a spider, then to a bat, and after
several suspenseful moments to the Statue of Liberty. (Reportedly, a similar
pose in Vanity Fair induced George Jean Nathan to remark that Mae looked
more like "the Statue of Libido.") As originally planned, Ruby's romance
with Tiger Kid, a champion prizefighter, is broken up by his manager. She
moves on to New Orleans where, singing the blues, she becomes the toast of
the Sensation House and is pursued by Brooks Claybourne and Ace Lament.
Ruby's life becomes even more complicated when Tiger Kid arrives in
town. Lament sets up the unwitting boxer to steal Ruby's diamonds while
she is out for a carriage
o
ride with the Sensation House's dishonest owner.45
Ruby quickly figures out that Lament and Tiger have lifted her jewels and
plots revenge. She also decides to return her gems to Claybourne; she con-
fesses to Jasmine that she feels guilty for accepting them from a man she
does not love. As they talk, a crowd of African-American worshipers gathers
for a prayer meeting in the street below. "That's Brother Eben and his flock,"
reports Jasmine. "He preaches bad sass to the devil." As Jasmine departs to
join in, Ruby requests that she "say a little prayer for me," handing her a do-
nation for the collection plate. Then she watches the throng from her bal-
1 O
cony above the street.

Ruby proceeds with her retribution. She makes sure Tiger Kid loses a
championship bout. Lamont, who has wagered heavily on Tiger's victory,
cannot cover his debts and decides to flee to Havana. Tricked by Ruby into
believing that Lamont is responsible for his loss, Tiger attacks and uninten-
tionally kills the Sensation House's owner. As Ruby ponders their predica-
ment, she sets the Sensation House on fire with an accidental flick of her
cigarette. In the end, Tiger turns himself in for Lament's murder, and a se-
ries of newspaper headlines—a sequence mandated by Breen—reveals that
IF YOU CAN T GO S T R A I G H T , YOU VE GOT TO GO A R O U N D 19!
a jury exonerates the boxer. The film concludes with Tiger and Ruby, their
love renewed,' savin?
J o
their weddingo vows.
While Breen believed he had excised all salaciousness from Belle of the
Nineties, West successfully signified Ruby's wantonness. When Tiger's man-
ager warns him that "all she thinks about is having a good time," Ruby shoots
back, "I don't only think about it." After arriving in New Orleans, a group of
handsome men at the Sensation House ogathers around her,' one asking, 7
o
"Are
you in town for good?" "I expect to be here," she replies, "but not for good."
She also successfully communicated her scarlet past, observing that "a man in
the house is worth two on the street."
The critics gave Belle of the Nineties a supportive reception. Variety, al-
though insisting that it was "not up to par," maintained that it contained a
healthy share of humorous Westianisms despite the censors' tampering. The
New York Times rated it "among the best screen comedies of the year." The Mo-
tion Picture Daily predicted it would be profitable but warned, like several
other critics, that it was purely an adult film. Several critics felt She Done Him
Wrong was a much better film but contended that Belle of the Nineties had sur-
passed I'm No Angel. One reviewer predicted that the censorship battle over
Belle of the Nineties would sell even more tickets.
Several critics hailed Duke Ellington and Brother Eben's prayer meeting
as, next to West's performance, the film's most compelling features. Variety
rated Ellington and his band as "nifty," and Motion Picture Daily praised the
prayer meeting as "particularly effective to the eye and ear." According to
Paramount, West's inspiration for the Brother Eben scene came as she lis-
tened to a revival meetingtobroadcast over the radio. A collaborative effort in-
volving West, McCarey, Struss, Ellington, and ninety-two African-American
men, women, and children recruited to play worshipers, the prayer meeting
was a unique cinematic passage embedded with complex messages.46
Brother Eben's revival takes place just beneath Ruby's window, where he
sings, "Pray, children, pray and you'll be saved," as a crowd grows. From the
throng, Jasmine shouts, "Bow down, bow down," and Ruby strolls on her bal-
cony surveying the scene below. The entire flock breaks into song, declaring, "If
the Good Book say so, it's so." Ruby then begins to sing along, but a different
tune. In blues style, she laments, "I'm going to drown, down in those troubled
waters, they're creeping around my soul." (The song borrowed from several
African-American spirituals.) The camera begins to switch between the bal-
cony and the street below, where the worshipers are seized by the holy spirit, fi-
nally superimposing their images on Ruby's as they join with her in song.
This passage, clearly intended as a statement about sin and redemption,
also demonstrated West's reliance on primitivism, for in her view its emo-
192 M A E * W E S T
tionalism was not confined to erotic passion but included its apparent oppo-
site,' religious
o
fervor. In this configuration,
o '
the black characters are closer
not only to nature but to God as well. Ruby asks Jasmine to pray for her, as if
her black maid were an intercessor or saint. Thus Jasmine becomes the spir-
itual superior who calls Ruby to worship, commanding her to "bow down."
Racial separation prevents Ruby from attending Brother Eben's revival; she
can only participate from afar as she looks on longingly. But together Ruby
and the throng deliver songs of suffering and redemption. When Ruby sings
about drowning, worshipers below wave their arms and sway, appearing to
drown alongO with her. As she declares that the "troubled waters" will "wash
away my sins before morning," the crowd's jubilation climaxes. Baptized to-
gether, Ruby and the throng find redemption as their images become fused,
the camera superimposing them in a visual symbol of racial intermixing.
What West could not accomplish on film with sex, she did with religion.
Belle of the Nineties carried a pointed critique of the American racial cli-
mate. Behind the sermonizing Brother Eben, African-American men stack
heavy sacks of grain at the waterfront. The workers are ill clad; their skin
glistens with perspiration; their expressions convey dejection as well as dis-
content. As they work, Brother Eben leads the congregation:
Brother Eben: Who's the cause of all sickness?

Crowd: The devil.
Brother Eben: Who's the cause of all the poor crops?
Crowd: The devil.
Brother Eben: Who's the cause of all evil?
Crowd: The devil.
Brother Eben: What did the devil ever do for us?
Crowd: Nothing.
o
He then pledges, as the throng gives freely, to use the collection to "fight the
devil."
Immersed in black culture and attuned to the multiple possibilities of lan-
guage, West certainly knew that the devil was a common African-American
metaphor for whites and white society. Framed by the image of exploited
black workers laboring away, Brother Eben's message implies a critique of
white society that abuses and grows rich off African-American labor. It also
underscores a fighting determination to throw off white oppression.47
Ruby stands on the divide between privileged white society and the
African-American community that suffers discrimination and exploitation.
When she sings, "They say that I'm one of the devil's daughters; they look at
me with scorn," West does not simply impart Ruby's (and her own) scan-
dalous reputation. She signifies the racial ambiguity of her character. As a
"devil's daughter," she is a white woman, who participates fully in the racist
oppression of African-American people. But she also imparts uncertainty
about her racial identity. "They say" implies that her whiteness, although
publicly assumed, may be debatable. As her character struggles to assert her
whiteness, she finds she cannot, much like American culture in general, es-
cape her black roots.
While the "Troubled Waters" sequence bore Struss's distinctive style,
West was its primary auteur. She was equally engaged in directing this film,
and she carefully rehearsed each song widi a pianist in her dressing room. As
with all aspects of her work, West fiercely controlled her performance; it
was her presence, and the black presence, that gave these cinematic mo-
ments meaning. o
West also offered other challenges to racist ideology. Ruby's occupation,
in addition to posing, is that of blues singer. Her point of origin, St. Louis,
subtly resurrects the biracial prostitute Frankie Baker. Reaching New Or-
leans, Ruby performs several old blues standards, including "St. Louis Blues,"
"Memphis Blues," and, most important, a heavily edited version of "He
Comes to See Me Sometimes," '
an echo of her trademark invitation. Elling-
o
ton backed her for each number; his music and orchestra were integral com-
ponents of the film. However, Ruby and the band, adhering to segregation,
were separated by space. While Ruby is onstage, Ellington and company are
placed at a distance in an orchestra pit, and when she delivers a song in the
Sensation House bar, several white men are positioned between her and her
black accompanists. But as she sings, she signifies her connection with them,
making eye contact with the bandleader and his musicians and introducing
each band member to the audience. While emphasizing West's debt to
African-American culture, it also introduces Ruby as a mediator. She is the
white woman who delivers black music. She exists in the space between the
creators of that music and the white spectator.
The white public continued, as in the past, to link her performance with a
black presence. Vanity Fair borrowed African-American bandleader Cab Cal-
loway's "hi-de-hi" to hail West's raucous characterizations. Variety suggested
that Ellington
o and his orchestra were "a natural for Mae West." A cartoon de-
picted West surrounded by her admiring male co-stars, including, although
relegated to a far corner, Duke Ellington. (Ellington clipped it and kept it in
his scrapbook.) Gilbert Seldes, who had panned Diamond Lil, became a con-
vert. He heralded West as "good news" for films, contending that she outdis-
O ' O
tanced all other Hollywood actresses with the exception of comedic legend
i 4
9 * MAE* WEST *
Marie Dressier and "that superb, almost anonymous negress whose great
mahogany smiling face and divine smile are among the major pleasures of
dozens of films through which she passes." In a sense, Seldes's odd tribute
posited West somewhere between the cinematic extremes of comedic
whiteness and blackness.48
In interviews, West now encouraged the public to associate her with
black performance. She repeatedly acknowledged her debt to African-
American culture, recounting her appropriation of the shimmy, ragtime, and
blues from the black community. These assertions were repeated in studio
biographies and press materials that declared her "the first white shimmy
dancer," told of her early Bert Williams impersonations, and identified her
as a former "coon shouter." As with the screen character, these details served
to reentrench West's "badness," linking her with hyper sexuality and the for-
bidden crossing of racial lines, but they also functioned covertly to under-
mine Depression-era America's racial divide.49
However, Belle of the Nineties carefully backtracks to cover its rebellious-
ness. Libby Taylor, who was light-skinned, wore dark makeup, essentially ap-
pearing in blackface that exaggerated Ruby's whiteness. Taylor's character
remains intellectually simple, unable to understand and carry out Ruby's
more complex requests. Her distorted dialect, along with that of other black
characters, reentrenches a buffoonishness. Additionally, Brother Eben's fol-
lowers appear ignorant and childlike, carried away by emotions and perhaps
even tricked out of their meager earnings by a con-artist preacher. As the
scene concludes, distorted shots of the black worshipers' faces fill the
screen, their shouting, screaming, and crying producing a nightmarish ef-
fect. Some viewers did not know what to make of it; several concluded it
was a distasteful satire of religion.
o
Gauging African-American response to Mae West and her films is diffi-
cult. Always confident, West believed that she had a large African-American
following, especially after Belle of the Nineties, since she had successfully com-
pelled the studio to feature Ellington and employ a large number of African-
American performers for the film. She seemed to have the support of
African-American colleagues. When later asked about West, Ellington com-
mented, "That lady is one of a kind. But besides being unusual and fascinat-
ing, she's concerned with other people, which is rare for a woman or man in
that position." Other African-American entertainers praised her for opening
doors for blacks in show business and helping black performers who strug-
gled against the racism of the studio system. After Belle of the Nineties, Libby
Taylor became so sought-after that she left West to pursue her own career
full-time. West jokingly told the New York Times, "When she started wanting
me to wake her up in the morning, I told her she better stop being a maid
and give all her time to her public." Over the next fifteen years, Taylor ap-
peared in thirty-three films, most often playing servant roles; ironically, like
many black actresses, she quit being a maid to play a maid.50
It is likely that West's guess was right: A number of African Americans
were probably among those who snatched up tickets for Belle of the Nineties.
After its official release in September, the film proved that West retained her
box office magic. As crowds filled theaters throughout the country, movie
houses Ogeared up1 for bigO business. In Chicago,
OJ the film made $60,000 in its
7
first week. Indianapolis immediately rebooked the picture for a second

week, and Boston reported that hordes of fans clamored for tickets. In At-
lantic City, one theater offered twelve showings daily to accommodate the
demand. Belle of the Nineties ultimately fell short of West's previous films,
but it still made a sizable profit.
Although some insisted that West had cleaned up nicely, others remained
unconvinced. Women's Club leader Alice Ames Winter immediately
charged censors with laxity. "I can't see how you can put the seal of the asso-
ciation approval on the Mae West picture," she complained to Will Hays, as-
serting that it manifested "a low level from a sex point of view." She feared
for the moral well-being of the population, especially the children. "They
don't need Mae West as a teacher," she scolded. Despite the Production
Code seal of approval, several state censor boards cut dialogue as well as
some of West's songs out of their copies. Internationally, a few countries
banned the film outright. Father J. A. Smith of Sayville, Long Island, com-
menced a one-man protest, picketing the local theater showing Belle of the
Nineties and noting down everyone who went in. He proudly reported that
after only a few days, the audience declined, forcing the theater to cancel the
rest of the showings. Hollywood took note and shifted more and more blame
for stricter censorship onto the reckless Mae West. "She was the straw that
broke the poor old camel's back," ventured Motion Picture Magazine.^
West still had plenty of defenders. At the end of September 1934, the
New York Times's Andre Sennwald insisted that censors had misinterpreted
West and that her work was no danger to American morals because it was a
O
satire and a "sly burlesque" of sex. She was, he asserted, no longer the Mae
West of SEX and Welfare Island; her style had matured since those randy
years. "She is so sane, so frank, so vigorous," he argued, "and, withal, so up-
roariously funny that she composes the healthiest influence which has
reached Hollywood in years." The Boston Herald's Elinor Hughes dismissed
the criticisms of the popular star. "We do not think she is doing any real
harm," she wrote, "because she is never serious about what she puts across."
196 M A E * WEST
Gilbert Seldes celebrated West as a "phenomenal woman" and compared her

to the innocent Shirley Temple, asserting both were "rude and rowdy" with
"an air of command." After seeing Belle of the Nineties, one Mae West fan
wrote Breen, "You certainly ruined that picture—didn't you? . . . We the
people don't know the names and addresses of these prudes who are sud-
denly trying to rob us of our human rights by telling us ... what we shall
look at and what we shall listen to."52
To be on the safe side, the studio began to tip publicity in a more conser-
vative direction, assuring the public that West was no moral hazard. One
press release revealed an astrologer's prediction that she would marry in
1938; another emphasized that West believed that good wives gave up their
careers. Combating the speculation that West was through in Hollywood,
Paramount publicity also claimed that she was so versatile that alterations in
her work would never impede her appeal. An article written by director Leo
McCarey declared that West could play any role ranging from Peg o' My
Heart to Catherine the Great. The studio also highlighted
o o
Belle of
J
the Nineties
censorship to show that West had voluntarily "gone good." Now more than
ever, publicists emphasized that she led an absolutely morally upright life
offscreen, contending that she attended church every Sunday. One fan maga-
zine, observing her popularity among children, asserted that they loved her
because she represented a mother figure, in particular, a "mammy."53
West's comments indicated a growing frustration with censorship. She al-
leged it was never clear what the censors really wanted. But she also assured
fans she had finally figured out "that things the censors think are bad I think
are alright
o
and I've learned that there are a number of thingso
that I shyJ
at that
they see nothing wrong in." That statement probably caused a double-take in
the Hays Office, whose representatives believed they had purged all sugges-
tiveness from her work. In one interview she feigned innocence, complain-
ing, "I can't say the things that other actresses say. When they say 'em,
they're funny; when I say 'em I'm vulgar. People seem to read double mean-
ings into every word I speak." She affirmed her intention to defy the censors
and continue to implant explosive messages in her films. "If you can't go
straight," she told the Los Angeles Times, "then you've got to go around."54
After Belle of the Nineties, West answered critics wagering that censorship
would finish her off with a song called "That's All Brother." Borrowing the title
from an African-American jazz chant, she recorded an ode to signification, both
a serious and comedic statement of her determination to fight censorship:
It's not what I say, it's the way that I say it.
That's all, brodier, that's all.
It's not what I play, but the way that I play it.
That's all, brother, that's all.
Imagine!
O O
herself as Red RidingO Hood,' Cinderella,' and Snow White ("with v
seven dwarfs to entertain, I should do alright"), she sent the Hays Office a
message:
Now please don't misunderstand me.

I take much of what they hand me,
Though it cramps my style
I'll never be defeated.55
Mae West was resolute. No censor could rest easy.

* N * I * N * E *
Naturally I Disagree
Sometimes I grow weary of fighting to keep faith with the

public. They liked me as Diamond Lil. I know they want me
to continue in that type of characterization. But certain well-
meaning executives believe I should do something different.
Naturally I disagree. Then I get a reputation for being obsti-
nate, hard to handle. Well, I've always had to battle for my
rights.
o
—Mae West to writer Lew Garvey, 1936
ince the spring of 1934, Mae West had been telling reporters that
S she had a follow-up project to Belle of the Nineties in mind; she

planned to play the Queen of Sheba. She assured the media her treat-
ment of this biblical character would primarily be dramatic: "I might
kid around with Solomon a little,7 but I won't goo too far." It seemed an odd
choice to some. "The Queen of Sheba was Ethiopian," protested Michael
Kane, a writer Timony engaged to assist with the script. "I thought the
blonde coloring of Miss West should be taken into consideration." The con-
tradiction did not disturb West; most likely it made the role even more at-
tractive. Additionally, the Queen of Sheba, who perplexed King Solomon
with a series of riddles, presented a beguiling trickster image—a perfect
match for Mae West. Of course, West's idea was nixed; journalists specu-
lated the Hays Office had a big hand in killing the project.1
Instead, in August 1934, the studio rushed West into her next film. Para-
mount had already purchased a script, Now I'm a Lady. Its central character,
Cleo Bordon, was no Queen of Sheba, but their efforts to join the elite res-
onated with The Hussy. Mae decided the screenplay should be set, in part, in
the Wild West. Proudly, she announced a national talent search for a Native
American to co-star as one of her paramours.
198
NATURALLY I DISAGREE 199
After reviewing West's first draft, Breen declared that Now I'm a Lady was
"basically in compliance" and required only a few changes. He deleted some
suggestive lines and references to prostitution; he also excised several Latin
American characters and a gay interior decorator. On December 19, 1934,
the day Paramount received Breen's okay, they began shooting. Everything
went so well that a few weeks later Breen informed Hays that "a sincere ef-
fort has been made to get away from any basically questionable elements"
and that Hammell was diligently monitoring this production.2
But West's honeymoon with censors did not last long. Shortly after
Breen's report, new material and songs filtered in, including a love song con-
taining the lyrics "Now I'm a lady, I get my sugar refined." Breen promptly
ordered deletions. Next to dialogueo
reading,
o'
"I onlyJ break one each night"
o
and "my hips would do a jelly roll," lines drawn from blues songs, he penciled
in a large
o
"NO!" He also excised a scene with a Latin American suitor askingo
Cleo, "Do you like Spanish men?" She responds, "Why should they be an ex-
ception?" Somewhere in the process, Cleo's Native American lover also dis-
appeared, and eventually the film was renamed Coin' to Town.^
Censorship was only a minor problem compared to the other setbacks
that plagued Gain' to Town. On January £, 193^, Battling Jack West died in
Oakland, California, of a stroke. It was not entirely unexpected. He had suf-
fered a severe heart attack in November and had been under the treatment
of a Bay Area cardiologist since then. West's reaction to his passing was
markedly detached. She canceled only one afternoon of filming to attend a
funeral held for her father in Hollywood and remained in Los Angeles while
Timony, Beverly, and John Junior followed Jack's body to Brooklyn for burial
in the family crypt. The next day, she was again at work, telling reporters
that despite her grief, she could not bear seeing the cast and crew suffer
without pay if filming was delayed.4
Although Paramount was certainly anxious to get West's film out, her
concern over delays was belied by her habitual tardiness in getting to the set.
Everyone knew West was chronically late, but her lateness became extreme
and costly to the studio, sometimes forcing the cast and crew to wait for
over four hours for her to show up. Filming was also delayed by her meticu-
lous demands. On at least two occasions, she forced Banton to redesign her
gowns after they had been finished. Several times, dissatisfied with daily
rushes, she insisted on reshooting not only scenes but entire sequences,
sometimes on location. The film's expenditures soared. West also insisted
the studio supply a personal vocal coach for a planned opera scene. After
filmingo commenced, ' she demanded a role for her brother-in-law,' Vladimir
Baikoff. She compelled the studio to pay Timony as her associate producer.
200 MAE * WEST
Later, she insisted that Paramount ship a car belonging to Tito Coral, one of
l O O 7
her male co-stars, to Detroit. A studio staff member indignantly scribbled

next to West's request, "What is this?"5
During her years in vaudeville, West, parodying Gaby Deslys, had culti-
vated a temperamental reputation. Indeed, she had a willful side to her per-
sonality and, when provoked, a stormy temper. Although Paramount had
promoted her as down-to-earth, by 193^ rumors of her extreme behavior
trickled out to the public. Co-workers seemed more willing to testify that
she was demanding, high-strung, and capricious. Stories of Lowell Sher-
man's impatience and unnamed insiders' frustrations circulated widely. A
year before, the public read that necessity had forced West to reluctantly get
a new car. "The other one just could not get me places without my worrying
whether it would hold together," she explained. In 193^, they learned it was
a customized limousine with her name printed on its cushions. It appeared
to some that Mae West had "gone Hollywood"; she was no longer the peo-
ple's star. "She has become aware of her fame," alleged the New York Times.
This signaled the beginning of a transformation of her star image that would
affect her career, films, and relationship with the press and her fans.6
The shifts in the Westian star image O
coincided with changes O
at Para-
mount. Her co-workers' public intolerance of her demands increased in di-
rect proportion to the growth of her power within the studio. Studio
workers, in particular directors and lower-level executives, had become re-
sentful of this mighty
O J
female force and began
O
airingO their Ogrievances. But
they were taking advantage of an upheaval at the studio that allowed more
public condemnation of La West. In February, just as filming on Coin'to Town
was wrapping up, production chief Emanuel Cohen, one of West's strongest
supporters at Paramount, was driven out. Rumors regarding reasons for his
abrupt departure abounded. Some speculated that it was his overindulgence
of demanding stars like Mae West; others believed that Paramount execu-
tives blamed Cohen, who pushed risque productions, for the escalating cen-
sorship controversy. Later a few claimed that the studio fired Cohen after
discovering that he had independently signed exclusive agreements with
Paramount's biggest names, including Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, and, of
course, Mae West. These agreements
7
O
forced Paramount to negotiate
O
with
him to renew their own stars' contracts.
While many at Paramount despised Cohen, West had lost a sympathetic
ally. His replacement, director Ernst Lubitsch, proved to be much less toler-
ant. Lubitsch was a highly regarded artist; his films carried what industry in-
siders identified as the "Lubitsch touch," a distinctive and sophisticated
wittiness. Despite his cinematic brilliance, he was a clumsy executive who
NATURALLY I DISAGREE 2OI
micromanaged every picture on the lot, often insisting on personally direct-

ing critical scenes in films under production. His heavy-handedness would
definitely clash with Mae West's style.
It is not clear whether Lubitsch exerted directorial control over Gain' to
Town, but it is certain that, in his position, he played a role in ordering the
film back into production in March. A preview audience's tepid response in-
dicated the film needed punching up. After adding a scene of Mae in western
gear on horseback, reshooting scenes on location, and redoing the opera se-
quence, Paramount screened the film for censors and received approval in
early April. When the film was finished, many weeks behind schedule, the
budget had soared to almost $92^,ôo. 7
Although Coin' to Town was ready by mid-April, Paramount held back its
release, hoping to drum up public support for West's latest offering. After
two years of constant attention, media coverage of the star was on the wane.
Now, when West did receive press, it was alarmingly polarized. There were
those who lamented the reformed Mae and longed o
for the Diamond Lil of
yore. Others complained about her sameness; one newspaper reported that
an exhibitor compared her to the "state fair" and contended that "when
you've seen her once, you've seen everything." As a result, Coin' to Town's
promotional campaign took on a schizophrenic form. Although press re-
leases emphasized a "streamlined" West in a contemporary setting, they also
relied heavily on the Diamond Lil mystique. Paramount urged theaters to
run clips from She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel. It was an ingenious
move, for in early 193^ Hays had banned both films from further exhibition,
warning Zukor that there was "no possibility of such pictures ever being
shown again." The studio's tactic kept the legend of Diamond Lil alive.8
O 1 O
Paramount aimed for a big release on May i , advising exhibitors to de-

clare it "Mae Day" in their communities. Curiously, however, the studio post-
poned the premiere until May i o. They were waiting for a storm to pass, for
at the end of April, West suddenly received a barrage of free but troubling
publicity. Journalists had dug up the only secret that could damage Mae
West's reputation—she was married.
It turned out that Myrtle Sands, a Milwaukee WPA worker assigned to
J ' O
refile old vital records,' had stumbled across a marriage

o
certificate that bore
the name of a Mae West of Brooklyn, New York, who in April 1911 had
married a Frank Wallace. Sands notified the local press, and they immedi-
ately located an old review of A Florida Enchantment praising the dancing
team of Wallace and West. By April 2 2 , Associated Press newswires carried
the story across the country. Fans read headlines proclaiming, "Mae West in
1911 Wed in Milwaukee," and scrutinized a hazy facsimile of the marriage
202 MAE * WEST
certificate. West issued a denial. "I never heard of the guy," she told re-
porters. Beverly assured reporters that it was a mistake. Eva Tanguay, living
in retirement in Los Angeles, insisted that Mae was too young to have mar-
ried in 1911 and speculated that the certificate belonged to another Mae
West, a tall, brunette old-time burlesque queen. "I've had a lot of things
come my way on Easter," West told reporters. "But this is the first time I
ever got a husband for a present."9
Despite the wisecracks, the alleged marriage severely threatened West's
star persona. She grew terse with reporters hounding her about the story,
which only further confirmed her transformation into a Hollywood diva.
For journalists, the news was a boon, and the hunt for evidence was on. One
Manhattan reporter dug up a photo of a Frank Wallace who played a singing
waiter in Diamond Lil. Even though Mark Linder confirmed that this Wallace
spent quite a bit of time in West's dressing room, the media determined he
was the wrong man. Another journalist discovered the Burmeister wedding
O J O
license application. When confronted, Burmeister blustered that it was just

some cheap publicity stunt.
Soon reporters were hot on the trail of another Frank Wallace, a down-
on-his-luck vaudevillian living in a cheap New York theatrical hotel. Gaunt,
balding, and middle-aged, he was hardly "the tall, dark, and handsome"
suitor that seemed to be West's standard fare. On April 24, national newspa-
pers quoted Wallace exclaiming, "What a girl—what a girl! If I had the
money I would still be sending her flowers every week. . . . I suppose she has
long forgotten her old partner and husband." Wallace insisted they had kept
the marriage secret, parting so West could get ahead in show business. Ini-
tially, he also claimed they had divorced. Reporters, failing to locate divorce
papers, did discover Wallace had been married to another woman since
1916. Wallace blamed Timony for mishandling the matter but his second
wife divorced him anyway. He soon picked up a partner named Trixie La
Mae for his new vaudeville act—called "Mr. Mae West."
West continued to deny the marriage. She declared the marriage certifi-
cate a fake and Wallace an opportunist. "I'm glad if some New York hoofer
has been able to get a job out of all this publicity," she stated. "But personally,
I've had enough of it." On the eve of Coin' to Town's debut, West was in a pre-
carious position. The press's persistence in contrasting Wallace's impoverish-
ment with her opulent lifestyle threatened her populist appeal. Furthermore,
she had evaded the question of her birth date, shaving a few years off her age,
but the Milwaukee marriage certificate made it difficult to conceal that she
was over forty.10
Even more harmful was the notion that Mae West, America's most invit-
ing sex symbol, was a married woman. Studios had traditionally covered up
stars' marriages, especially those of actresses, fearing that matrimony would

undermine their public appeal. Such revelations were especially harmful to
Mae West. In part, her image rested on her rejection of the cult of domestic-
ity and its most fundamental institution, marriage. The appearance of a hus-
band jeopardized this rebellion. No matter what the censors mandated, for
West to be married was unthinkable, a contradiction to her image as an inde-
pendent woman resisting male domination.
West's seemingly unwedded state had permitted her characters to straddle
a line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. As a single woman, she
had more freedom to challenge o
the double standard she so detested;' she
could enjoy the company of as many men as she liked. "Essential to the West-
ian tradition of cozy hospitality," observed Time, "is the point that she has
never married." For West to be both married and of easy virtue was too
much of a jolt to conventional morality. Verification of her marriage threat-
ened to convert West, along with her inseparable fictional character, from a
freewheelingo celebrant of Eros into one of the era's most shameful of female
figures, an adulteress. Maybe Mae West was not really, as fans had seen her,
"on the level" and "regular." The impression was reinforced by a suit Wallace
filed in mid-May in New York alleging that West's denials had resulted in
"humiliation [and] unpleasantness and caused the public and my friends to as-
sume I am an imposter."1'
Wallace's suit hit the newspapers just as Goin' to Town debuted in theaters
nationally. Despite his claims, fans were eager to see how West was faring
under Breen's increasing control. With the help of loyal moviegoers, Gain' to
Town opened big in cities throughout the country, generating solid box office
its first week out. 12
In Goin' to Town, Cleo Bordon inherits a western ranch from her deceased
cattle-rustler fiance. The property comes complete with racehorses, oil
wells, and a handsome, well-bred oil engineer, Edward Barrington, who re-
buffs her advances. "She's rather crude oil," he snickers. Cleo's financial ad-
viser, Winslow, warns her that Barrington is only interested in women of his
own social class. This makes him even more of a challenge, and Cleo resolves
to make him love her.
She follows Barrington to Buenos Aires, where she enters one of her
horses in a championship race. All of European and American high society
has ventured to the city for the races, and Winslow tutors Cleo on social
graces. But his attempts are futile, and the blue bloods, especially the female
set, look upon her with disdain, one remarking that she needs a "lesson in
keeping her place." Nonetheless, Cleo is indefatigable. Her horse comes in
first, beating one backed by the snobbish Mrs. Crane Brittany. Unable to win
over Barrington, Cleo buys her way into a marriage with Brittany's nephew,
204 M A E * WEST
Fletcher Colton. It is purely a business venture; she promises to pay his gam-
bling debts, and he offers her a sterling family name.
Settling with Colton in the upscale Long Island community of Southamp-
ton, she redecorates his mansion with exotic animals and imposing nude
male statues. She throws a high-society ball and finds that one of her guests,
the Earl of Stranton, is really Barrington. He confesses that he has fallen for
her. In the meantime, Cleo's faithful Indian servant discovers Colton has
been murdered. The police determine that his killer is Ivan Valdov, a Russian
gigolo hired by Brittany to expose Cleo's scandalous reputation. The film
ends with Cleo betrothed to Barrington, warning the earl, "Take it easy,
you'll last longer."13
Shortly before the picture's release, Breen declared to Hays that Para-
mount had "conscientiously avoided the more serious difficulties that have
attended some of this star's previous pictures." But when theater lights went
up, Coin' to Town's audiences discerned that West had successfully slipped
much past the censors. In the end, this film was lustier than Belle of the
Nineties. Although Breen cut all references to prostitution, West successfully
signified it anyway. For moviegoers, Mae was Diamond Lil, and advance
publicity, drawing on clips from her now banned films, served as mementos
of her scarlet past. West also planted subtle reminders in the dialogue.
When a character exclaims, "I didn't know you speak Spanish," Cleo replies,
"Don't think I worked in Tijuana for nothing." Furthermore, in lines Breen
attempted to delete, Cleo confesses, "For a long time I was ashamed of the
way I lived." Another character asks, "You mean to say you've reformed?"
"No," answers Cleo. "I got over being ashamed." While playing craps, she
tells her male opponent she does not mind losing—"I'll roll you whether I
do or I don't." In an even bawdier exchange with Ivan, she refuses his mar-
riage proposal, telling him, "As a husband, you'd get in my hair."14
After Gain' to Town's release, both critics and reformers burst forth with
complaints. Motion Picture Daily pounced: "The Decency League and those in
charge of the Production Code must have taken a vacation while this picture
went into circulation." The New York Times condemned it as "gutter vulgar-
ity." E. Robb Zaring of Indiana's Methodist Episcopal Church fired off a let-
ter to Breen. "Several of my friends report that it is the same old May [sic]
with no effort at cleaning up,"he protested. "But what I cannot understand is
how this particular actor who stands for a particular phase of morals should
have been permitted to put another over on the American youth."15
Others simply branded it a bad film. "Writing is shoddy," huffed the Holly-
wood Reporter. "Mae West's poorest," declared Variety. The New York Times's
Andre Sennwald, earlier a defender, charged that "Joe Breen and his censor-
ial shears have not killed Mae West. Mae West has committed artistic
harakiri." In his opinion, this film lacked West's "splendid earthiness." He de-
creed Coin' to Town West's "swan song," noting that her attempts to create a
new character revealed both the enduring popularity of the original and her
inability to move beyond a role censors now refused to allow her to play.
"She seems doomed regardless
O
what road she chooses "he concluded.16
7
Althougho it rproduced above-average o box office returns,' Gain' to Town fell

well below West's earlier films. As Sennwald observed, much of this re-
sulted from attempts to move West's character in a new direction. For all
Cleo shared with her Westian sisters, she was, as many detected, a depar-
ture. Based on The Hussy's Nona Ramsey, Cleo resurrected an earlier forma-
tion of West's stage persona, an immature version of Diamond Lil. Like
Nona, Cleo lacks the self-reflective and transcendent qualities that made the
Mae West character so popular. Lil, Tira, and Ruby did not need a Winslow
to explain Harrington's class prejudices; they would have quickly discerned
and rejected them. In Coin' to Town, however, West's trademark rejection of
high society was missing. Like Nona, Cleo is a climber, willing to deny her
class background to attract a man of the elite. "You have the uncomfortable
feeling," Sennwald wrote, "that she has developed a slight feeling of inferior-
ity toward the socially elect whom she is presumably lampooning." Lil, Tira,
and Ruby did not really aspire to join the upper class; they just wanted its
money and its men. 17
West may have known that the absence of substantive class critique
threatened the film's appeal. Initially, the opera scene, where West per-
formed an aria from Samson and Delilah, functioned to give not only Cleo but
also West some "class." When it was first filmed, she presented it seriously
to demonstrate that she could stretch beyond popular ballads and blues, but
after previews, the scene was completely reshot with West burlesquing it.
Still, Variety complained that the final version seemed lacking, just a little too
serious. In May 193^, the country still lingered in depression, and seeing the
Westian character of the working-class heroine throw in, even just a little,
with silk hats did not sit well, especially when the star herself seemed to be
selling out.
Cleo also presented a less emboldening image for women. She embar-
rasses, disparages, and even literally lassos the snobbish Edward Harrington,
yet Cleo has to work far harder than the mature Westian character to get her
man. While Lil, Tira, and even Ruby find that their male suitors often de-
ceive them, they remain supremely manipulative. Men fall left and right for
Cleo, but her relentless and often futile pursuit of Harrington lacks Westian
boldness. Harrington's uncontested elitism and conceit prevents West's
206 * MAE * WEST*
trickster from shining triumphant. Cleo seems just a little too desperate,
traveling the world and giving in to upper-crust affectations for just one
man. Sennwald bellowed,' "Whoever heard of Mae West chasing to
a man?"18
Still, Gain' to Town reaped a profit, and Paramount reportedly boosted her
salary to assure that she would not bolt for a better offer. Newspapers calcu-
lated that West was one of the richest women in the United States; she
earned almost $340,000 in 1934 and was well on her way to earning over
$480,000 for 1935:. By 1936, only one other American made as much as
Mae West: the powerful newspaper publisher and old Tammany nemesis
William Randolph Hearst.
Throughout the summer of 193^, Mae West remained the subject of me-
dia glare as Frank Wallace continued to push his claims. More evidence of the
marriage surfaced. West's police record listed her as married, and newswires
flashed a photo of a spry, brunette Mae posed in a crescent moon with a
straw-hatted, cigar-chomping Frank Wallace. Anyone who looked carefully at
it could see that she proudly displayed a small wedding band on her left hand.
Reporters tracked down the judge and the county clerk present for the mar-
riage ceremony, but neither recalled the couple. An interview with Anna
Szatkus, Frank Wallace's mother, was no help. She remembered her son's
wife Mamie but could not tell whether Mamie was the infamous Mae West
because she never went to the movies. However, one movie magazine writer,
Robert Eichberg, revealed that when he approached Wallace, the hoofer
promised to give "any sort of story we wanted on Mae—if we hired him."
Eichberg concluded the marriage was a scam.19
O O
West had other supporters. In July, the nation's leading fan magazine, Pho-
toplay, featured an article in which she denied Wallace's claims. "I am not
married. Not to Frank Wallace. Not to Jim Timony, my manager," she de-
clared. "Shall I draw a diagram?
to
I'm a single
o
gal with a single-track
o to
mind."
Motion Picture Magazine also came to her aid. In his regular feature, J. Eugene
Chrisman, who had befriended West, ignored the Wallace scandal. Rather,
he focused on West's reputation for extreme generosity, reporting on
friends and strangers alike whom West had helped. Keeping the legend
alive, Sidney Skolsky, in his nationally syndicated newspaper column, reas-
sured fans that West was unchanged by fame and fortune. "She doesn't pre-
tend," he wrote. "She talks the same language to all men, whether they are
congressmen or prizefighters."20
During the Wallace scandal, Jim Timony began to emerge from exile. He
assumed an active role in fighting
to
off Wallace's
to
claims andto the negative pub-
r
licity that accompanied them. Wallace claimed the former barrister threat-
ened him with ruin if he did not retract his allegations. Furthermore,
O '
NATURALLY I DISAGREE lOJ
Timony continued to handle West's business affairs, advising her as she pur-
chased more real estate in the Los Angeles area. In addition to expanding her
holdings in the San Fernando Valley, some of which she eventually sold to
Mary Pickford, West acquired a restaurant for Beverly to run. She also pur-
chased the Ravenswood and its adjoining property.
West bought the Ravenswood for personal reasons. She remained se-
curely entrenched in her apartment, well protected by a team of bodyguards
that now included former prizefighter Johnny Indrisano. But she ran into re-
sistance from the Ravenswood's owner when she began o
entertainingo the
African-American middleweight boxing champion William "Gorilla" Jones
in her apartment. In the past, African Americans who called at the
Ravenswood for West were either employees or there on the pretense of
business. Jones's visits were clearly social. Finally, one day the management
refused to allow her to bring him up. Rather than protest against such
racism, West purchased the building. She also hired his parents, Henry and
Daisy, to supervise her two-bedroom apartment's household staff and to deal
with reporters.
West had met their son in 1934 and was acting as his sponsor and man-
ager.
O JJones was a Ogood-looking, O J powerful boxer who wore expensive
1 i
clothes, drove fancy cars, and shared West's love of jewels and exotic ani-
mals. (He had a pet lion that sported a diamond-encrusted collar.) West pro-
vided him with financial advisers and urged
o
him to invest his winnings
o
in real
estate and a trust fund. Jones was fiercely loyal to West; he claimed that she
forbade the use of racial slurs in her presence. Reportedly, he throttled a
man he overheard making &
an unflatteringo comment about her. Both West
and Jones publicly denied that they had an affair, but privately she admitted it
was true. They would remain friends until her death.
Knowing Mae West, a permanent fixture at local fights, was advantageous
for any boxer. West was more than just a celebrity; she had money and, even
more important, connections. Owney Madden was a powerful figure in
prizefighting, capable of arranging critical bouts for fighters. West insisted
that her influence with Madden helped set up the match between Joe Louis
and James Braddock in 1937. Louis, the victor, become the first African
American since Jack Johnson to claim the world's heavyweight championship
title. While West's boast was probably exaggerated, it may have contained
some truth. Racial barriers had prevented Louis from his shot at the crown,
and his management often relied on underworld ties to arrange bouts.
West seemed particularly predisposed toward supporting African-American
boxers. She had hired another, featherweight
7
O
ChalkyJ
Wright,
O 7 as her chauf-
feur. (She eventually replaced him with his brother Lee to prepare Chalky to
2o8 MAE * WEST
return to the ring.) As with Jones, Tinsel Town gossips maintained that
Wright and West were intimate. Both parties denied the rumors.21
Wright figured prominently in West's life in the fall of 193£ as she faced a
series of extortion threats. In early September, she received a letter demand-
ing $ i ,000 and warning that acid would be thrown in her face. The district
O ' O
attorney assigned special investigator Blayney Matthews to the case. Over the
next few weeks, several more notes arrived, now threatening death. Finally, a
letter arrived instructing West to place $ i ,000 in a tin can in some bushes in
front of a Sunset Boulevard studio. A police detective, Harry Dean, in a white
fur-trimmed coat and makeup, posed as Mae West and accompanied Chalky
Wright to make the drop. Police surrounded the area; Wright showed up and
deposited the money. The extortionist never materialized.
A follow-up note directed West to leave the money in a purse in a vacant
lot near the Warner Bros, studio. This time West went in person. Wright,
who carried a pistol to protect her, pulled up with her in the back. He
climbed out of her enormous limousine, deposited the purse, and then
whisked her away. After several minutes, police observed a man approach
the lot, examine the purse, replace it, and walk away. He later returned,
grabbed the purse, and fled. Police descended on the suspect and wrestled
him to the ground. He was a Greek immigrant named George Tanios, and he
O O O -* 7
worked as a studio cafeteria busboy. At the same time, officers did a sweep of
the area, rounding up several more men and booking them all on suspicion
of extortion.
The FBI learned of the extortion letters on October 8, when they read the
reports of Janios's arrest in the newspapers. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
sent an angry letter to Los Angeles bureau head Joseph E. P. Dunn, pointing
out that mail threats were the agency's responsibility. Dunn reported that the
Los Angeles DA had bypassed the local office and that police had been carry-
ing out an investigation for almost a month without his knowledge. Dunn
telephoned West, who refused to talk to him. When he showed up at the
Ravenswood at two A.M., he was informed that she was not home. He then
contacted Blayney Matthews, who abruptly informed the agent that "he
would not turn these extortion letters over even to President Roosevelt." An-
other agent, E. A. Tamm, confided to Hoover that the DA had provided West
with free police protection for over a year. He also reported that agents had
ascertained that "the District Attorney's office out there and the newspapers
run a sort of a racket relative to information about the 'stars' and 'they simply
won't let go until the information is on the streets.' "
When Agent Dunn threatened to call the DA and West before a grand
O O
jury, they both had a quick change of heart. The studio arranged for West to
NATURALLY I DISAGREE 2O9
meet with the agent, and the DA relinquished the investigation to the feds.
Solving the case, however, was another matter. Of those arrested, only
George Janios remained in jail, and he obviously could not read or write
English. A judge, determining that Janios was simply an innocent passerby,
set him free. For several months, federal agents collected evidence, even tak-
ing handwriting samples from Paramount employees, but it all proved incon-
clusive. Newspapers soon reported that West had requested the case be
"deferred."22
While the FBI remained stumped, West's police bodyguard, Jack Chriss,
offered to solve the case for one hundred dollars a day. West agreed, and, in
turn, Chriss hired two high school students, one of them James Robert Par-
rish, who later became a Hollywood director, to carry out surveillance for
ten dollars a night. For several weeks, the teens tailed Wright and Indrisano,
reporting to Chriss that neither man was a likely suspect. Although the FBI
failed to make any arrests, Parrish believed that Chriss was behind the extor-
tion plot. Reportedly, the detective was eventually kicked off the force and
ended up in prison.23
The extortion scandal occurred several weeks into filmingo on West's next
project. The studio had presented her with a story entitled Hallelujah, I'm a
Saint that chronicled the metamorphosis of a scarlet woman into a devout
missionary. West believed it could be nicely merged with Frisco Kate and,
with help, produced a screenplay that eventually was entitled Klondike Annie.
It chronicled the adventures of the Frisco Doll as she traveled from Shanghai
o
to San Francisco to the Klondike.
For the film, West demanded and Ogot acclaimed director Raoul Walsh,
7 7
who had worked on Sadie Thompson, a screen adaptation of Rain. Although

early in filming the two had a blowup (West had covered only four pages of
script in eleven days, angered because the studio had failed to assign Struss as
her cameraman), they quickly patched up their differences. Walsh actually
appreciated her careful attention to detail and often went along with her sug-
gestions. West liked Walsh's willingness
o o
to coach rather than direct her.
Skolsky reported that "no matter who is on a Mae West set and who is di-
recting the flicker, you can tell what Mae West says, goes."24
West was equally satisfied with her cast. For her leading man, the studio
supplied the talented Victor Mclaughlin. West found parts for old friends and
colleagues as well as her brother-in-law. While Doll's Chinese employer, Chan
Lo, was played by a white actor, West insisted on Chinese-American actors for
other roles and on Chinese-American musicians to accompany her onscreen.25
From the moment the project reached Will Hays in late June 193£, it was
clear—West was ogoingo to be embroiled in one of the hardest-fought o
censor-
210 M A E * WEST
ship battles of her career. Klondike Annie was born amidst escalating criticism
of the Hays Office. On the studio's side, John Hammell was again on duty to
assure censors and the public that West would not get out of hand. But it
was evident that Hammell functioned more as a public relations tool than a
quality control expert. His first act was to circumvent Breen by working di-
rectly with Hays over the telephone. Breen eventually interceded, resolute
that the studio would conform to his demands. Klondike Annie was a critical
test of his power and effectiveness. This time Breen was determined to rein
in Paramount and Mae West; he not only ordered cuts but personally
rewrote unacceptable scenes and dialogue.26
Klondike Annie's original
o drafts told a tale of spiritual
r regeneration
o duringo
the tsgay
J nineties. Frisco Doll is a Shanghai
o o gambling orpalace "hostess,"
' who ac-
cidentally kills Chan Lo while fighting off his advances. Fearing retribution
and arrest, Doll escapes to San Francisco, where she secures passage to the
Klondike on a frigate.
o
On board she meets an evangelist
o
named Soul Savin'
Annie. They establish a warm friendship, and when Annie falls ill, Doll re-
mains faithfully by her side. Despite Doll's efforts, Annie dies before they
reach Nome.
To elude capture in Nome, Doll assumes Annie's identity. She soon "be-
comes a changed o
woman,"' embracingo Annie's cause and leadingo a religious
o
revival that brings salvation to the rowdy settlement. In the end, her decep-
tion revealed,' she resolves to stand trial for Chan Lo's murder,' believing o
that
her faith will sustain her and that she will be exonerated because she killed
him in self-defense.27
While the original plot showed the redemption of Frisco Doll, censors
refused to permit the moral regeneration of West's imagined self. The pro-
posed story flagrantly violated the Production Code by depicting prostitu-
tion, miscegenation, murder, and, in Breen's estimation, a burlesque of
religion. He went to work cutting the script. Among numerous deletions, he
excluded any hint of sexual intimacies, especially between the races. In the
end, his alterations prevented West from being either too bad or too good;
he would not allow her to portray either a prostitute or a missionary. Breen
warned the studio to take care "that Doll is not in any sense masquerading as
a preacher or any other character known and accepted as a minister of reli-
gion ordained or otherwise. Rather her assumed character should be that of
O
a social service worker." He 1prohibited West from wearingO "religious O

garb,"
O 7
quoting or even handling the Bible, singing hymns, and preaching. Demand-
ing that the mission become a settlement house, Breen devised what he con-
O '
sidered to be acceptable and entertaining substitutions:

Shots of Doll playing games with the rough miners, teaching them Mother
Goose rhymes, etc. Settlement workers make it a practice to gather chil-
dren around the settlement house to cut out paper dolls or play charades.
Why not have Doll giving the rough miners a bit of the same instruction?
Additionally, he mandated the inclusion of a temperance message, trans-

forming Doll into a "sort of Carrie Nation, cleaning up the saloon."28
Breen had underestimated West's ingenuity, the studio's tenacity, and the
power that Diamond Lil had over the public's imagination. Combining these
forces, West presented, or signified, her original story. Regardless of the
censors' dogged interference, the film retained most of its original content.
In the final version, Doll is a blues singer in a San Francisco casino owned
by wealthy Chinese prince Chan Lo. Captivated by Doll's beauty, he keeps
her virtually a prisoner, but she grows restless under his obsessive attentive -
ness and schemes to run away. When Chan Lo tries to punish her with tor-
ture, she stabs him to death. She flees San Francisco on a freighter bound for
the Klondike's gold fields and captures the heart of its captain, Bull Brackett.
At a stopover in Vancouver, the frail and aged Sister Annie Alden boards.
Bound for a settlement house in Nome, she tells Doll of her determination
to "provide material and spiritual guidance" to the unruly frontier folk. An-
nie learns of Doll's sordid past and sweetly urges her to repent. "It takes
courage to be good, but I know you have the courage," Annie says. "If you'd
try you could resist every temptation." Doll puffs a cigarette and drawls,
"What's the good of resisting temptation? There'll always be more."
Annie continues her efforts to "save" Doll, offering her a book entitled
' O
Settlement Maxims. Over the course of the long voyage, Doll develops affec-
tion and respect for the fragile settlement house worker. But the trip is hard
and Annie declines, eventually suffering a heart attack. Doll nurses the fail-
ing reformer, feeding her spoonfuls of soup. As their ship pulls into Nome's
harbor, Doll returns Annie's book, admitting, "I've begun to see things dif-
* ' O7 O O
ferent now. . . . You know I actually enjoyed readin' it." With her last breath
Annie gasps, "I won't need it anymore. May it keep you in the path of right-
eousness all the days of your life."
Doll mourns only briefly, for Nome's handsome police inspector, Jack
Forrest, has boarded the vessel with a warrant for her arrest. Desperate, she
switches places with Annie. Slipping on Annie's bonnet and modest black
dress, she convinces Forrest that the Frisco Doll died en route to Nome.
Debarking, Doll unhappily discovers that she must continue her masquer-
ade until Bull's ship receives clearance to depart. But after she dupes Nome's
settlement house workers into believing she is Sister Annie, guilt overcomes
2I2 M A E * WEST
her. She realizes Annie's death has benefited her and decides to repay her fallen
friend by revitalizing the struggling settlement house. She organizes a town
meeting, invites the entire community, and solicits support from the sugges-
tively clad and tightly corseted saloon proprietress, Fanny Radler. When
Radler balks, Doll warns her, "Listen you, I speak your language too. . . . Any-
time you take religion for a joke, the laugh's on you and if you know what's
good for you, you'll be there."
The following Sunday night the settlement house overflows with happy
celebrants. Doll enters to cheers and delivers a rousing temperance song.
The auditorium grows quiet as she speaks:
I once made the mistake of thinking o

that religion
o
was onlyJ for certain
kinds of people. But I found out different. I came to realize that you don't
have to go around lookin' sad and wearing a long face to be good. I want
to show you that you can think right and do right every day of your lives
and still have a good time in this world.
Overcome, a member of the audience rises and offers a confession, and Doll
miraculously reunites him with his wife. At the meeting's conclusion, con-
gregants eagerly fill the collection plate and happily recess for refreshments
served by Fanny Radler and her dance hall girls.
The town marvels at Doll's talents, one settlement worker exclaiming
"Sister Annie has accomplished the impossible! They're shutting down the
town on Sundays and promise law and order will be restored!" Singlehand-
edly, Doll has saved Nome and uplifted its residents. Furthermore, her love
life improves. Bull waits in port hoping she will join him on the high seas,
but she has also attracted the affections of Jack Forrest, who, after discover-
ing her true identity, offers to resign his post and help her escape.
What will Doll do? Choose Brackett or Forrest? Remain a saint or a sin-
ner? "Caught between two evils," she muses, "I generally like to pick the one
I've never tried before." But after reflection, Doll sheds Annie's dowdy attire
and emerges in full Diamond Lil regalia. She instructs the flock to construct
a new building and a large sign reading "Sister Annie Alden's Settlement
House" and swaggers
oo
offscreen and out of town.
The film ends with Doll aboard Bull Brackett's ship determined to re-
turn to San Francisco and turn herself in. She tells Bull of a dream in which
"Annie spoke
i
to me. I heard her sayJ 'Go back and do the right
O
thing.'
O
" Cer-
tain the jury will find her innocent of Chan Lo's murder, Doll explains,
"I've got to make up for my past." Bull objects to her reformation, and as
she reclines on a couch, she takes him in her arms. "You're no oil paintin',"
she purrs, "but you sure are a fascinatin' monster." The scene fades out with
a passionate kiss.29
Much hoopla surrounded the making of Klondike Annie. Rumors circu-
lated about the film's scandalous material; Skolsky reported that West could
not "even sit close to McLaughlin
o
without alarming o
the censors." When the
studio screened it for the censors on New Year's Eve 193^, however, Breen
immediately granted it the seal of approval. Soon he discovered he had been
tricked. Reading newspaper reports of Klondike Annie's Los Angeles preview,
he discovered that the studio had issued a different version of the film. En-
raged, Breen demanded, after viewing this print, that the studio delete the
unapproved dialogue and the scenes depicting torture, Chan Lo's murder,
and Doll making up the deceased Sister Annie, complete with cigarette, to
look like a prostitute. Privately, Breen wrote, "Just so long as we have Mae
West on our hands with this particular kind of story which she goes in for,
we are ogoingo to have trouble. . . . Lines and pieces
r
of business,' which in the
script seem to be thoroughly innocuous, turn out when shown on the screen
to be questionable at best, when they are not definitely offensive." As a re-
sult, Klondike Annie was not ready for release until late February 1936. 30
The studio began a promotional campaign to undermine the censors' ef-
forts to eliminate both religion and sex from the production. Studio publicity
identified Sister Annie as "going
o o
to Alaska to Jioin a band of missionaries" and
Doll's Nome activities as "prayer meetings." Advertising highlighted the film's
sexual undertones; publicists created slogans out of traditional Westian innu-
endos. "Come up1 and see me again, D '
fellows. Thar's more O gold in them thar
hills," exclaimed one lobby poster. Another read, "Out where the whiskers
grow just a little bigger, out where the he-men are faster on the trigger, out
where the gold's awaiting the digger, that's where the West begins." More
contests encouraging fans to submit Westian double entendres continued to
instruct the public to recognize when and what West signified.31
As a result, most, if not all, of the audience left Klondike Annie thinking
they had just seen a film about sex and religion. Diamond Lil was back. West
affirmed this, declaring, "The character I created in She Done Him Wrong is
the one I'm still using and it seems to be doin' alright." Several reviewers in-
terpreted Doll to be what one labeled a "prostie." Many also perceived Doll
and Chan Lo as lovers, signified by West's performance of a song entitled
"I'm an Occidental Woman in an Oriental Mood for Love." Kindled by visual
signification, viewers immediately recognized Doll's frock as that of a Salva-
tionist; critics identified Sister Annie as a missionary, hearing West singing
hymns and delivering sermons. Soon censors realized that they had been
duped; Will Hays lamented, "My worst worry is not the alleged salacious-
214 M A E * W E S T
ness, but the producer's failure to avoid the impression that it is a mission
house picture and the Doll is masquerading as a missionary." Despite Breen's
efforts, Diamond Lil had been saved.32
Of all her films, West was proudest of Klondike Annie. This project repre-
sented the most complex and articulate vision of her cinematic presence, a
climax to Diamond Lil's saga. In Klondike Annie, West successfully inter-
twined sex and religion with sin and redemption in a tale that explored the
primary components of American identity: race, class, and gender. Her
work became a creative space that provided entertainment and also func-
tioned as a social critique through an exploration of the self as well as the
other. It revived the blues voice that had empowered her earlier work, fol-
lowing Doll on a journey, both physical and spiritual, where she faced junc-
tures and commented about experiencing that experience. This film
addressed the central questions that had driven West's work since she was a
child doing imitations in her parents' living room. Identity became the piv-
otal issue at all levels of Klondike Annie. When Doll (alias Diamond Lil alias
Mae West) switched places with Sister Annie, the masquerader assumed yet
another masquerade. Klondike Annie's power rested in its construction as the
trickster's trickster tale. Journalist Eleanor Barnes compared West with en-
during images of tricksterism: "There is no Mae West in reality today," she
wrote. "She is as complete a creature of fancy and fantasy as Puck or the
three witches in Macbeth."33
West had long comprehended that her character's appeal and power lay in
its suspension between opposites. What made Diamond Lil and her sisters
compelling was their existence somewhere between the good, represented by
the stalwart Captain Cummings, and the bad, conveyed by the brutality of
Gus, Chick, and Rita. But the Production Code's banishment of cinematic evil
robbed West's characters of their sinfulness as well as underminingtothe CCn-
trasting pure wickedness that they struggled against both internally and exter-
nally. In Klondike Annie, West overcame this impediment through her artful
implementation of signification, resurrecting the double voice lost in Gain' to
Town. The blues-singing trickster had come home. Humorist James Thurber
recognized West's dualistic essence and her role as mediator. In an illustration
accompanying his hearty endorsement of Klondike Annie, he depicted Mae
West with wings and halo, soaring in the heavens "invisibly above the bad boys
and girls she goes to Alaska to join but remains to save or darn near."34
West as Doll had unleashed her trickster heroine to mediate between the
sacred and the profane. Klondike Annie was so fluid and so powerfully covert
that through it West played the ultimate prank. Censorship czars Breen and
Hays diverged in their interpretation of the film, quarreling over its true
nature and intent. Responding to Hays's allegations that Klondike Annie lam-
pooned religion, Breen defensively denied that the film "even remotely
hinted at ... a travesty of religion." Both on and off the screen, the trickster
had created chaos.35
What Breen and Hays both missed was that Klondike Annie functioned si-
multaneously as a "travesty of religion" and an exploration of the pathos of
faith. As the Doll, or a doll, West becomes the ultimate signifier, a toy that is
only representational and is never what it really is. Continually she pivots,
mocking both the religious and irreligious. West even successfully incorpo-
rates a showdown between her selves, forcing Doll (posing as Sister Annie)
into a confrontation with the symbolic prostitute Fanny Radler (signifying
Diamond Lil). Doll speaks in both sacred and secular tongues, reminding
Radler. the viewer, and even herself that "when you take religion for a joke,
the laugh's on you."
O J
By reversal and revision, Klondike Annie transforms a ridicule of religion

into a morality play. Essentially the film assumes the motif of a conversion
tale, following Doll as she passes from a state of sin to a state of grace, along
the way J
challenging
o o
the contours of those stages.
o
In the beginning, Doll appears as a sinner. Playing on racist assumptions,
she exists in what white society of the 19308 considered a degraded state; she
is a white woman living o
amongo the Chinese in San Francisco's Chinatown, a 7
community disparaged by whites as pagan. But immediately, Doll, the trick-

ster, commences signification through inversion and reversal. Manipulating a
series of polarities, Doll rebels by exploiting and inverting the racist stereo-
types of the Chinese and Chinese Americans. In Klondike Annie, Chinese char-
acters appear as either docile, subservient, and ingratiating or inscrutable,
devious, and violent. While this reifies white racism, at the same time, West
challenges some of its components. Her rendering of the blues-tinged "I'm an
Occidental Woman in an Oriental Mood for Love" implies not only her desire
for Asian men but that she has acted on it. As she sings, backed by Chinese
musicians, the camera pans the crowd, showing a sellout audience composed
almost exclusively of Chinese men who gaze yearningly upon her. But the
stereotype of the predatory Chinese male is countered by shots of Doll gazing
back with reciprocal passion. It constitutes a revolt against the cinematic male
gaze, for West not only uses it to establish herself as an object of male desire
but also to signify a filmic miscegenation. This is reasserted as she thanks the
handsome Lon Fang, who aids her escape from Chan Lo. Glancing below
Fang's waist, she murmurs, "I wish I could reward you somehow."
These Chinese characters serve as substitutes for black images prevalent
in West's early films. Similarly, they highlight Doll's whiteness: She is the
2 l6 M A E * W E S T
"Occidental woman" and "a white doll," who, enslaved to Chan Lo, is the
"pearl of pearls," sorrowful at her captivity. Yet her racial identity is con-
tested. Her contacts remain confined to the Chinese. Doll speaks fluent
Mandarin, appears in Asian dress, and shares the same status as the rest of
Chan Lo's employees, all Chinese and also totally under his control. Like
Doll, they remain virtual slaves to his whims. While Chan Lo reentrenches
racism, he is counterbalanced by the other Chinese characters and their
kindness. In a sense, his cruelty derives also from his class position; he is a
prince, a capitalist, a composite of Western fiendishness and stereotyped
Eastern brutality. It is those who serve him, Doll and his Chinese employees,
who possess a humanness denied to Chan Lo by his aristocratic background.
Doll's escape with her Chinese maid, Fah Wong, on Bull Brackett's ship
symbolizes the next stage in her conversion. Significantly, her repentance
commences during an ocean voyage, a setting replete with Christian sym-
bolism. As Doll crosses over to freedom, liberated from Chan Lo's enslave-
ment, she is reborn into a new life (and identity) through a baptism of sorts
on the high seas. But the ideology of racism lingers in this construction. Doll
does not begino her spiritual
r renewal until freed from all Chinese ties,' sig-
o
naled when Fah Wong disembarks just before Sister Annie boards.
For the most part, Doll's conversion occurs through a linguistic match
with Annie. And as Annie declines,' Doll blossoms,' growing
o o
in both allure
and spiritual strength. By the time the ship reaches Nome, Doll has, in syn-
cretic fashion, absorbed some of Annie's faith. Yet Doll emerges even more
powerful than the evangelist, for she possesses the best of both the spirit and
the flesh.
In the final stage of the conversion tale, the convert spreads the word.
Doll's particular spirituality, a combination of the sacred and the profane, re-
vises normal expectations regarding faith and provides her with an electric
presence that furthers her evangelical efforts. Nome's settlement house
workers are a weak, joyless, and lackluster bunch; they preach tiresome ser-
mons and sing off key. But in her masquerade, Doll injects a renewed energy
into their faith. With her raucous and demonstrative revival, she rejects
dreary conventionality and religious formalism. This disruption of tradition
creates a sacred space of empowerment. Doll seizes the pulpit, unseating ec-
clesiastical patriarchy, leading the entire town and its most hardened sinner,
herself, to salvation.
Doll's reformulation of faith signifies on American society's relegation of
sex and religion to polar extremes of the moral spectrum. Essentially, Doll re-
solves Diamond Lil's Ogreatest dilemma,' proving
1 O
that sex and salvation need not
be mutually exclusive, that the sexually experienced woman is not necessarily
NATURALLY I DISAGREE llj
an evil woman. In West's re-vision of spirituality, the strongest believer is both

righteous and sexual. "I didn't feel anywhere near as damned at this movie as I
did, when I was a young man, at Rain," James Thurber confessed. "For in Rain a
religious man goes sexual, and that disturbed me, but in Klondike Annie a sexual
woman goes religious, and that gave me a sense of peace."36
Yet, in trickster fashion, West could leave no tale closed. In the final
scenes, Doll calls into question not only her own conversion but even her
success in wresting power from the male-dominated society. Coming full
circle, Doll reemerges as Diamond Lil, corseted, gowned, and beplumed,
seemingly ready to return to the scarlet life. Doll capitulates to Brackett, a
pairing, like that in SEX, more suited to her station in life. However, even as
she succumbs to the appropriate match, she signifies on gender restrictions.
In the final scene, as Bull hungrily sizes her up, she calls him a "monster," re-
vealing her passion but also latent resentment.
With Klondike Annie, West proved she still had box office pull. Record
crowds turned out for this effort. New York City's Paramount Theater
quickly scheduled extra shows starting at 8:30 A.M. and continuing until two
in the morning. to
New York observers noted that fans were "storming" to
theaters
despite horrific weather conditions. Although the film generally received
negative reviews—Variety complained about its "rough, if unpalatable hu-
mor," and the New York Times declared it "excessively stupid"—fans remained
loyal. Quigley's Motion Picture Herald reported that across the country the pic-
ture was raking in $2,5-00 to $8,^00 over the average box office proceeds.37
Many speculated that West had been helped along by newspaper magnate
William Randolph Hearst, an old foe from her censorship battles in New
York. Klondike Annie had reawakened his ire. In an internal memorandum to
his editors, he declared it "a filthy picture" and "an affront to the decency of
the public." Banning advertisements for the film, he instructed, "After you
have had a couple of good editorials regarding the indecency of this picture,
then DO NOT mention Mae West in our papers again while she is on
screen." Criticism of West, Paramount, and the censors appeared in Hearst
publications nationwide; some called on Congress to take action against the
star. Several editorials attacked the miscegenationist
to
theme. "Mae West's
Klondike Annie is a disgrace to everyone connected with it," declared one
publication. "Paramount and Will Hays should be ashamed."38
Speculation on Hearst's motivations came from various sectors. Some
theorized that the interracial love affair between Doll and Chan Lo outraged
the conservative editor. Several contended that his ire stemmed from West's
reported criticism of Hearst's mistress, actress Marion Davies. Still others
cited West's refusal to appear gratis on Hollywood Hotel, a radio show hosted
2l8 M A E * W E S T
by Hearst columnist Louella Parsons. The Motion Picture Herald wagered that
it had nothing to do with West but rather was aimed at Will Hays, who had
tampered with a Hearst-backed film called Ceiling Zero. West ascribed it to
sexism, jealously, and elitism—that Hearst "hated to see a woman in his
own class."39
Paramount circumvented Hearst's attacks by running ads in his papers
urging moviegoers to call theaters for information regarding an "important
feature," which, of course, was Klondike Annie. Non-Hearst publications, cit-
ingo the crowds fillingo theaters for the film,' chuckled at the ineffectiveness of
his campaign against Mae West. "Hearst papers have not stopped or even de-
layed her climb to fame," remarked Hollywood's Citizen-News. "This year she
was rated well up1 in the list of the i o biggest
OO
box office stars."40
Although Klondike Annie had allies, many joined the Hearst attack. While
the Legion of Decency had rated the film suitable for adults, several individ-
ual parishes condemned it. Father Joseph B. Buckley of Washington, D.C.,
praised the Hearst editorials and urged fellow Catholics to boycott Klondike
Annie. In a letter to Paramount, the San Francisco Motion Picture Council,
representing religious and community organizations, complained that "any
picture that represents its heroine as a mistress to an Oriental, even as mur-
deress, then a cheap imitator of a missionary jazzing religion is not in har-
mony with the other educational forces." A postcard arrived at Paramount,
addressed to both Will Hays and Mae West, bearing a scrawled message,
"Shame on you."41
West also emerged in the center of another crisis. Just as Klondike Annie
hit the silver screen, a Senate subcommittee proceeded with hearings on
block booking. Quigley's Motion Picture Herald proclaimed that "the block
booking controversy" had "narrowed down to the heaving bosom and bustles
of Mae West." Noting that West "symbolized" the arguments against the
practice, the publication reported that exhibitors now used her censurable
reputation as ammunition in their fight against the studios. Movie moguls re-
sponded that box office evidence bore out that exhibitors not only profited
from her films but had demanded them, canceling films of the "quality type
that have good moral standing but questionable commercial appeal." In the
end, the studios won this round;' block booking
7
O
was not outlawed until
1948. But West's image as the anti—block booking poster girl lingered on.42
As West confronted censors, negative reviews, Hearst, opposition from
movie reformers, and the block-booking controversy, she also encountered
big problems with Ernst Lubitsch. He had proven to be an almost universally
despised studio boss. His domineering style alienated many at Paramount,
especially West, whose contract had accorded her creative control. She re-
sisted his directives regarding casting and claimed she fought off his attempts
at taking over a critical scene in Klondike Annie. After he criticized the thin-
ness of McLaughlin's part, she expanded it but warned him, "Shakespeare
had his style and I have mine." One morning Lubitsch appeared in West's on-
set dressing room to reprimand her for chronic tardiness. West turned to
her dressingo table,' o
grabbed a hand mirror,' and began
o
hitting
o
him with it. He
bolted from the set as a group of extras burst into applause.
After Cohen's departure, Paramount was a much less accommodating
place for Mae West. "Paramount didn't seem like home to me any longer," she
remembered. She was not the only one who felt that way; Lubitsch's reign
had produced many disgruntled studio workers. To make matters worse, in
January 1936, West was warned that she must strictly follow orders and that
Paramount's production chief would not tolerate any challenges or devia-
tions; several directors found similar missives in their mailboxes.43
Lubitsch's actions placed the studio in a precarious position. As the film
industry bounced back, several producers, including Cohen, established in-
dependent film companies and began competing for stars who were in the
market for better deals. In West's case, the studio had failed to get Klondike
Annie out before the end of 193^, a violation of her two-picture-a-year con-
tract. In January, she notified Paramount that she considered her contract
null and void and intended to sign with another studio. Paramount insisted
that the contract stood and that she had violated it by refusing to prepare an-
other picture in time.
In February, angered by Paramount's response, West, disguised in a black
wig, boarded a Chicago-bound train. Meeting Cohen in the Windy City, she
attended a hit play, a Broadway touring show called Personal Appearance. The
Hollywood gossip mill reported that West had decided to exercise her op-
tion with Cohen and make a picture for him.
While there were those on the lot—among them, most likely, Lubitsch,
who were ready to let her go, it appears others wanted desperately to hang
on to Mae West. She calculated that by 1936 she had made the studio almost
$ i£ million. While she was in Chicago, one of her strongest supporters,
William Le Baron, was elevated to production chief, and he informed West
that Lubitsch had been excused to return to directing. Timony trumpeted
victory, telling the press that Lubitsch had mistakenly "thought in his Hitler
way, he could push Miss West around." Yet Timony cautioned that West was
still scouting for a better deal. For West's part, when she returned to Los
Angeles, she refused to comment. But upon her arrival, she coined one of
her most famous lines; she greeted an LAPD officer assigned to escort her
home with "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you happy to see me?"44
220 M A E * WEST
Lubitsch may have significantly hurt Par amount's efforts to retain Mae
West. When confronted by reporters as he departed for a European vaca-
tion,' he claimed that most of the friction between himself and the star origi-
o
nated over her weak screenplay. He criticized West for pairing herself with
actors that he thought were too young and claimed she had reduced
McLaughlin to a "mere stooge." When pressed about Timony's comments,
he responded, "Try to push her around did I? She's much too heavy."45
Within a week, West announced she would make pictures for Cohen but
under Paramount's name. Some have argued that this was a clean break with
the studio,j that Paramount executives were anxious to &get rid of her and dis-
tance the studio from her rowdy reputation. But Paramount supplied her
with their directors, cameramen, cast, and crew, as well as handling her pub-
licity and putting their name all over her films. In early March, a moving van
arrived at the Paramount lot with West followingo in her limousine. In true
Westian fashion, she personally supervised the movers who loaded the truck
with her belongings. Her bungalow went to Mary Boland, a comedic actress
popular for playing wives and mothers. Skolsky lamented in his column, "It
isn't the same."46
Cohen had a project in mind for West when she arrived on his Major Mo-
tion Pictures lot—a cinematic version of Personal Appearance. For several
years, Hollywood studios had considered filming the play. A lampoon of the
film industry, it centered on the adventures of an egotistical star, Mavis Ar-
den, who is stranded in rural Pennsylvania. Although the play had not been
officially banned, Hays had blocked earlier attempts to film it, contending
that it constituted "a libel on the industry and its employees." It was the per-
fect vehicle for West to vent her disgust with moviedom.47
In February, even before West made her move, Cohen began maneuver-
ing to secure the Hays Office's approval of Personal Appearance. Initially he
sent drafts of the script, asking for Breen's confidential and unofficial feed-
back. Breen rejected it. Nonetheless, Cohen assured Breen that all revisions
would conform to Production Code guidelines. In May, West sent her ver-
sion. Again, Breen declared it unacceptable, citing a negative depiction of a
Jewish producer, Mavis Arden's promiscuity, the dialogue's double enten-
dres, and "all the business of the hay in the barn" as Code violations. Into the
summer, Cohen inundated Breen with new drafts of Personal Appearance.
Breen beganO
to offer suggestions
OO
for revisions. ByJ
August,
O '
the script
1
had
been renamed Go West Young Man, and with the exception of a few plugs for
Paramount performers, direct mention of Hollywood personalities had been
almost entirely deleted, including several references to Mae West herself.
(Mavis Arden, to her intense frustration, is constantly being mistaken for La
West.) Additionally, it was a presidential election year, and censors excised

the movie's political content. Mavis's observation that "a politician is usually
a guy that promises the working man a full dinner pail—and then after the
election, he steals the dinner pail" disappeared, as did her anti—New Deal
contention that the government spent "millions" on "silly old dams"—about
which "nobody gives a damn."48
Filming finally began in late summer 1936. One of the most attractive fea-
tures of West's deal with Cohen was his apparent willingness to allow her
artistic freedom. For the most part, he met all her demands. For her leading
man, Cohen recruited cinema heartthrob Randolph Scott. Struss was brought
on board, Baikoff received a role, Johnny Indrisano was cast as her chauffeur,
and Jack La Rue, who had played Pablo Juarez in the original Diamond Lil, got
a part. West also insisted on the inclusion of Nicodemus Stewart, an African-
American singer and dancer who appeared with the Cab Calloway Orchestra,
which had taken over as the Cotton Club's house band.49
In Go West Young Man, Mavis Arden, one of Hollywood's biggest stars, is
selfish, temperamental, and ill educated—a limited actress with a melodra-
matic delivery. She constantly misuses words. "A. K. [her producer] was
right when he said we was makin' pictures for maroons," she tells her press
agent Morgan, hired to make sure she upholds her contract, which forbids
her from marrying for five years. Morgan's task is not easy, for Mavis is con-
stantly on the prowl for male companionship.
On the road during a personal appearance tour, Mavis's limousine breaks
down outside a small Pennsylvania town. Waiting for her car to be repaired,
she endures several days J
at a local boardinghouse
to
that is home to a teenage
to
female movie fan, a stodgy old aunt, a disapproving professor, and, fortu-
nately, a handsome young mechanic, Bud Norton. An aspiring inventor, Bud
tells Mavis of his improvements in motion picture technology. "I'd just love
to see your model," she remarks. Offering to take him to Hollywood, Mavis
tells Bud, "I can't tell you the number of men I've helped to realize them-
selves." But Morgan o
intervenes,' deceiving Mavis
to
into believing
o
that Bud
would be leaving a local woman who is carrying his child. Mavis eventually
discovers Morganto
has lied and forces him to confess—he did it because he
loves her. As the movie ends, Morgan and Mavis ride off together and she
murmurs, "Men are my life."50
It seemed fitting that West would poke fun at her own star persona. Start-
ing with her early appropriation of Gaby Deslys's star image, the Westian
celebrity had been a parody. Mavis seemed to either confirm or challenge
what everyone alleged West had become. With Mavis, West exposed the
phoniness of stardom and Hollywood. Mavis is a complete fake, pretending
2 2 2 A E * W E S T *
to adore her fans but disparaging them behind their backs. Like her fans,
who live for and through her pictures, she has no existence outside of the
screen, interpreting life's crises by relating them to her movies' plots and re-
lying
j o on film dialogue
o to oget her out of tight
o spots.
r Like the Mae West star
image,
o '
Mavis seemed indistinguishable
o
from her screen character. And the
film revealed that Mavis was every bit the vamp that she played on the
screen, leaving audiences doubting West's continued protestations that she
and her characters were nothing alike. Significantly, the stage version's cen-
tral character was a married woman who schemes to seduce men. But the
image of a sexually promiscuous married woman was too bold, and too real,
for censors, who mandated that Mavis be single. Still, society's rejection of
the adulteress was exactly what West confronted as she battled to maintain
her star persona. This blur of fantasy and reality created a dizzy array of mir-
rored images replicated over and over again, until it became a parody
(Mavis) of a parody (Mae West). In this film, West, the trickster, rejected
celebrity, the cult of celebrity, and the studios that manufactured celebrities.
For some,' it suggested
oo
that West was nothingo like Mavis. For others,' as the
New York Times put it, Mae was "what casting directors call a natural."51
Mae also used Go West to criticize other aspects of the movie industry. Mavis
denounces her producer because he "only cares about money." As Morgan re-
cites press materials about Mavis's "heart of gold," an image also affixed to
West, he looks dubious. West also took a jab at critics and censors. Teen movie
fan Gladys relates a Mavis Arden plot to Aunt Kate, who dismisses the actress's
pictures as all the same. Flustered, Gladys confesses confusion regarding the
story, sighing, "You know how they cut pictures these days."
The censors had significantly altered Go West Young Man. As well as ex-
cluding sexual overtones and movie colony references, Breen excised ele-
ments of blackness. Initially, West had created four parts for African-
American performers: a maid, a chauffeur, a cook, and a buffoonish me-
chanic for actor Nicodemus Stewart. Breen restricted West to white ser-
vants, stripping the script of all black characters with the exception of
Stewart's mechanic.
Stewart played a lazy and dopey car mechanic in the style popularized by
African-American actor Stepin Fetchit, slurring his words and moving with
contorted and slow mannerisms. In early versions of the script, West con-
trasted him with a black female cook who speaks in dialect but is hardwork-
ing, sharp, and witty. Breen's deletion of this character as well as of the maid
and chauffeur left only the most degrading of racial stereotypes to stand
unanswered by any other black presence. Breen may have been responding
to African-American protests over the almost uniform depiction of blacks in
films as servants. More likely, since he made no alterations in Stewart's role,

he was preventing West from signifying her affiliation with her black charac-
ters and her more rebellious messages. He also eliminated references to
Mavis as a former Chicago blues singer. Ultimately, Breen's deletions created
the most forceful affirmation of racist ideology in any Mae West film. At
least one reviewer cited Stewart's character as the film's weakest part. 52
However, most critics applauded Go West Young Man. The New York Times
deemed the film "engagingly robustious." Variety congratulated West for suc-
cessfully working within the Production Code but also noted, "No Mae West
picture has been more Westful or zestful." Hearst ended his Mae West boy-
cott, and his New York Evening Journal, joining with several others, proclaimed
Go West Young Man to be her best film since She Done Him Wrong. Several re-
viewers praised her satire on filmdom. The Indianapolis Star declared it "a
gorgeous lampoon at the expense of'the beautiful and the dumb' of Holly-
wood." Mae's latest Westianism, "A thrill a day keeps the chill away," was
added to her growing
o o
list of famous sayings.
y o
Fans were equally satisfied. Paramount had scheduled Go West Young Man
as the feature celebrating their Manhattan theater's tenth anniversary.
Moviegoers packed the theater, and the New York American declared, " 'It's al-
ways sex o'clock at the Paramount,' as Joe Miller used to say. And Para-
mount is crowded." In December, after it had been out for almost a month,
Variety announced that the film was "on the way to snug profits."53
Despite the enthusiasm of fans and critics, plenty disparaged this effort.
Leading the pack was Quigley's Motion Picture Herald, which declared Go West
Young Man "a new low mark in entertainment." Complaining that censors had
again allowed her to run afoul of the Production Code, it labeled West's film as
"a collection of coarseness and vulgarity." Women's clubs denounced the movie,
and a California educators' Ogroup1 declared it "destructive of ethical standards,
7
somewhat demoralizing, and totally lacking in charm." Author Graham Greene

characterized West as "an overfed python" and claimed the film was "tedious,
as slow and wobbling in its pace as Miss West's famous walk."54
In November 1936, just as Go West Young Man hit the theaters, Photoplay ran
an article by a "Madame Sylvia" entitled "Is Mae West Skidding on the
Curves?" It was a devastatinglyO J
negative
O
assessment of West's career. Review-
ing West's achievements since 1933, Sylvia observed, "She was one of the Big
Ten at the box office that year. Now, she's number . . . well, I can't tell. I
haven't got my specs." She blamed West's decline, in part, on censorship,
"which removed nice, clean dirt from her pictures," but also complained that
the star's famous full figure was her undoing. West had indeed gained weight
since I'm No Angel, but she prided herself on her buxom proportions. With
224 * M A E * WEST
Gain' to Town, however,' a backlash against

o
the Westian figure
o
commenced.
Criticism of West's curves paralleled the press's (and Paramount's) mount-
ing disaffection with the actress. By rejecting the ample West, the media not
only attacked her influence and success but also undermined one of her most
empowering contributions to women, reentrenching traditional and oppres-
sive notions regarding the female body and deglamorizing the Westian per-
sona overall. "Plumpness is an insidious thing," wrote Madame Sylvia. "It
sneaks up on you and becomes just plain fat."55
West battled back. In interviews, she reasserted her dedication to the
people, attributing her negative publicity to her struggle with the powerful
studios and censors. "I've had to fight for things all my life," she said. "Ever
since I entered show business I've had to battle to give the people the sort of
entertainment that they enjoy. As long as the public supports my pictures,
I'll fight to provide what the people want." She understood keenly that her
temperamental reputation resulted, at least in part, from her position as a
strong woman defying the male-dominated film world. "Sometimes I grow
weary of fighting to keep faith with the public," she told one fan magazine.
"They liked me as Diamond Lil . . . but certain well-meaning executives be-
lieve I should do something different. Naturally I disagree. Then I get a rep-
utation for being obstinate, hard to handle." The movie industry, initially so
eager to celebrate the superwoman, was willing to undercut that image now
that she had garnered so much real power.56
West's star image
o
suffered even ogreater blows as Frank Wallace continued
to file suits against her and disseminate stories of their early, giddy courtship.
In November,' coincidingowith the release of Coin' to Town.' Wallace filed an
affidavit claiming he possessed letters addressed "My Dear Husband" and
signed "Your little Mae." The Los Angeles Daily News, describing West as a
"middle-aged screen siren," quoted her snapping, "I don't write letters."57
Yet Wallace persisted. In 1937, Look magazine reported that West was a
millionaire. If Wallace could prove she was his wife, her assets would be-
come his under California community property laws. In May 1937, his at-
tempts to force her to admit to the marriage in court failed, but that
summer, a judge ordered West to testify or face contempt charges. On July
7, West filed a statement in California Superior Court confirming that she
was Mrs. Frank Wallace. But she maintained that his claim to her fortune
was abrogated by two factors: They had never lived together as man and
wife, and he had married another woman without obtaining a divorce.
It was a stunningo admission that would forever change o
West's image
o
in
the public's mind. It confirmed that the woman that America had worshiped
as a superwoman—powerful, funny, and sexy—was not only married but
NATURALLY I DISAGREE 22^
was also forty-three years old. Of all the attempts by the censors to desex
Mae West, nothing came near the revelation that she was some man's middle-
aged wife. Even worse, it further corroded her genuineness, a quality cele-
brated by her Depression-era fans. The press was especially unforgiving.
One publication blasted West as "an overstuffed idol with feet of clay."
" 'Mrs. Mamie Szatkus' was scarcely box-office for glamorous Mae West,"
snorted Time. Sidney Skolsky, one of her greatest supporters, was infuriated.
"The villain of the week is Mae West," he huffed. "It will be difficult . . . for
the Hollywood reporters to believe statements made by Mae West for she
insisted that she was leveling with the press when she told them that she had
never been married to Frank Wallace." For the rest of her career, West
would struggle to reassert her credibility and desirability.58
* T * E * N
Bring Me Rabelais
Varvara: Whom does your majesty wish in bed with her

tonight—Rabelais or Voltaire?
O
Catherine: Bring me Rabelais, that's more to my mood.

—Mae West, Catherine Was Great, 1943
fter Go West Young Man, Mae West had a definite plan for her next
A project, a film on the life of the Russian empress Catherine the

Great. Actually, West's interest in Catherine was an outgrowth of
her aborted Queen of Sheba project. Realizing that the Queen of
Sheba would never make it to the screen, she substituted Catherine. Mae
identified with the German-born empress; she was impressed by Catherine's
vast array of lovers and reputed proletarian sympathies. Beyond that, the
empress was a woman who successfully confronted a patriarchal society and
assumed a role normally restricted to men. "After years of surviving studio
politics and handling vice-presidents," she wrote, "I saw Catherine was really
a portrait of myself."1
Cohen firmly opposed the idea of Mae West playing Catherine the Great.
In 1934, Dietrich's portrayal of Catherine in The Scarlet Empress had flopped.
If Dietrich had failed as the regal empress, obviously the bawdy Mae West
could hardly succeed. Cohen urged West to abandon the idea, revealing he
had already decided on her next project, a film that would propel her back
to the 18908, the era that had made her famous.
West reviewed Cohen's script and immediately rejected it, insisting that
she would only appear as Catherine. Cohen ignored her. In fact, he had al-
ready constructed a gay nineties set, recruited a director, hired a crew, and
signed on cameraman Karl Struss. Additionally, he had arranged for gowns
by acclaimed French designer Schiaparelli. West protested; she had prepared
a script for Catherine. Cohen stubbornly countered that any film on early
Russia was too expensive.
226
BRING ME RABELAIS 227
Eventually Cohen convinced West to preview a few songs composed for

his film. After a listeningo session in her dressing o
room,' she chose the tune
that Cohen disliked the most, "Mademoiselle Fifi." She then announced she
had an inspiration. Over the next ninety minutes, she dictated a new story-
line, merging
3
O O
the original
O
script
1
with the song.
O
Her version followed the ex-
ploits of a beautiful blond Bowery con artist, Peaches O'Day, who, to escape
incarceration, dons a black wig and poses as a French entertainer. The film
would be called Every Day's a Holiday.2
In early August 1937, Cohen delivered the first draft of Every Day's a Holi-
day to Joseph Breen. In a letter, the producer stated that Mae West had "bent
over backward" to produce a clean script, to the extent "that it marred the
entertainment value .""It is our belief," he wrote, "that there is not a single
line or situation which can be considered objectionable from a censorship
standpoint or from a public standpoint." Of course, Breen immediately re-
jected the script, branding it "enormously dangerous" and a blatant violation
of the Production Code. He listed numerous lines and scenes carrying what
he identified as "double meaning" O
that required
1
revision or deletion before
he could tender approval.
Curiously, Cohen did not protest Breen's decision but rather asked him to
resend his letter with even more deletions. In his personal files, Breen noted
that Cohen requested that he eradicate several more scenes and pleaded for
an even more strident letter, hoping that it would "have some force or effect
with his associates at the studio." It marked a turning point in Mae West's ca-
reer. Rather than standing firm for her artistic freedom, the producer whom
she trusted so implicitly secretly collaborated with Breen to redirect her
work. Without her studio's support, she would find it nearly impossible to
fight the Hays Office.3
Breen combed Every Day's a Holiday and, with Cohen's cooperation, ex-
cised a heavy portion of Westianisms. Mae contended that two of her most
famous lines, "I wouldn't let him touch me with a ten-foot pole" and "I
wouldn't even lift my veil for that guy," fell under his axe. While Cohen con-
tinually assured censors that West's character had been transformed into a
con artist, freeing the production of all sexual situations, Breen remained
skeptical. Even after the film went into production, he gave it only tentative
approval. All script changes were carefully reviewed, and a Hays Office rep-
resentative hovered on the set.4
For the cast,' Cohen recruited four leading o
men and,' in addition to stan-
dard players, hired an assortment of West's friends. At her insistence, he
signed up African-American musician Louis Armstrong. "Miss Mae went to
the head of Paramount and told them they'd better hire me or else," remem-
2 2 8 M A E * W E S T
bered Armstrong, o'

who had been a featured artist in Harlem clubs since the
19208. Still, his presence led to controversy. Mae and the musician forged a
strongO bond:' she created a stir on the lot when she lunched alone with him
in her dressing room. "That was unheard of in those days," he remarked, "for
a white star to mix with any black."5
West included Armstrong o in o
givingo final approval
rr to the film's score,'
which was completed by Hoagy Carmichael. Summoned to her dressing
room, Carmichael found West waiting with Armstrong. Together they re-
jected every song he had written. After a sleepless night, Carmichael re-
turned the next dayJ with a new song. O
West was Ogracious but still dissatisfied.
"No,j darling,"
O
she remarked as he finished the tune. Exhausted, he offered an
old composition, "Jubilee." Mae and Armstrong were both pleased. "Yes, yes,
darling,"
o7
she affirmed.6
Every Day's a Holiday opens on New Year's Eve 1899 with Peaches O'Day
selling the Brooklyn Bridge to an unwitting mark. A stalwart police detec-
tive, Jim McCarey, curtails her activities. Dispatched by the corrupt police
commissioner and mayoral candidate John Quade to arrest Peaches, Mc-
Carey is beguiled by her and allows her to flee the city. Peaches returns dis-
guised as the talented but temperamental Mademoiselle Fifi. As Fifi, she
takes Manhattan by storm. When he discovers her true identity, Quade be-
comes enragedo
and vows to o
get her. However,' in the end,' it is Peaches who
triumphs. She convinces the honest McCarey, who is now even more infatu-
ated with her, to run against Quade. On election eve, she leads a big parade,
under the banner "Laugh, Sing, and Vote." McCarey exposes Quade's wrong-
doing to the crowd in a speech and then rides off with Peaches, certain he
will win the election.7
In Every Day's a Holiday, Breen successfully cooled off Mae West. The
Hays Office had realized that harnessing her rested less on suppressing her
films' content and more on expunging her style—taming the signifying
West. In the margins of correspondence with Cohen, Breen scrawled "look
out when shot" and "wait till we see," constraining Peaches from any hint of a
sexual self. Between Cohen and Breen, she was reduced to a petty criminal,
a sham artist with a purse full of brass knuckles, safecracking tools, and
loaded dice. She remained more powerful than the men who surrounded
her, but Breen's constraints, finally effective with Cohen's help, cut back
West's social criticism and bold womanish style that had made her popular.8
West's original vision of Peaches was much more powerful than the final
product. In an early script, Peaches is a vocal suffragette who runs for mayor
herself. Breen's alterations reduced Mae to uttering, o'
"I don't know a lot
about politics but I know a good party man when I see one," and even that
line was eventually cut. When one character observes that Peaches has been
arrested twenty-five times, she responds with the film's most defiant state-
ment: "No woman is perfect."9
West's initial script contained a sequence featuring an African-American
spiritual. With Belle of the Nineties in mind, Breen struck it out, claiming the
censorship boards—sensitive to anything dealing with religion—would
delete it anyway. The result was another nullification of the black presence
in West's imaginary world. Armstrong was relegated to a brief appearance in
the parade. Yet her debt to African-American culture remained present.
Fighting
O O
the censors,' she reverted to a Bert Williams technique, 1 '
talking
O
through her only song, "Mademoiselle Fifi." Using a mock French accent, she
signified a sensual presence despite lyrics that had been thoroughly scoured
by Breen.
Still, West clearly had intended to offer a critique of American politics. In
this film, she revived Diamond Lil's exploration of dishonesty among politi-
cians and the police. While her recent experiences with law enforcement
may have provided her with renewed inspiration, since the twenties her
work had conveyed a suspicion of elected officials and the police. From its
earliest drafts, the script incorporated these themes, and Quade, completely
unscrupulous, embodied the worst of both politicians and the police.
Breen reacted with alarm to the script's first version, heavily laden with
allegations of political corruption and characters who were closely based on
real public officials. He warned Cohen to eliminate politics, because the de-
piction of police and governmental officials as dishonest could lead to law-
suits. The producer made concessions but held firm to some political
content. And West was able to slip at least one jab through: Calling upon an
old device she had used in the 19205 to taunt the authorities, she played on
homophobia by quipping that Quade and a crime boss were so close that
"they sleep together."
In early November, Cohen screened the final cut for Breen. Later in the
month, the censor sent Cohen a certificate of approval, but with a stern
warning. Breen cautioned him that they would be watching to make sure that
his studio distributed only the approved version. Breen was determined not
to be outsmarted, tackling head-on the studio's tactics of releasing, as with
' O O7
Klondike Annie, an unapproved version.10

Paramount and Cohen geared up to open Every Day's a Holiday during the
holiday season. Press materials distributed to theaters and exhibitors
promised, "Mae West means Every Day's a Holiday at the box office." To further
promote the film, West was booked on one of the nation's most popular radio
programs, NBC's Chase and Sanborn Hour starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie
230 M A E * WEST
McCarthy. What Paramount and Emanuel Cohen did not know was the in-
credible amount of publicity Mae's appearance would generate; it became one
of the most notable, if not most notorious, moments in radio history.11
According to some reports, West proposed to do scenes from Every Day's
a Holiday for the show, standard practice for stars plugging their films. But
the show's producer thought he had a better, and probably cheaper, idea. He
pulled out an old Garden of Eden skit that they had already used three times.
West would play Eve opposite series regulars Don Ameche as Adam and
Bergen as the snake. Less than twenty-four hours before the broadcast,
Chase and Sanborn contracted with writer Arch Oboler to revise the script,
leaving little time to rehearse West's much publicized appearance. On Sun-
day, December i 2, newspapers across the country advised listeners to tune
in at eight o'clock, Eastern Standard Time, to hear Hollywood's most fa-
mous siren trade quips with America's favorite dummy. Bergen believed that
on that evening the show scored its highest ratings ever; he estimated that it
drew an 84 percent share of the listening audience.12
After the usual musical introductions, a short appearance by Bergen with
McCarthy, and a plug for Chase and Sanborn coffee, Don Ameche intro-
duced Mae West in the role of the "most fascinatin' woman of them all—
Eve." Mae's Eve is a disgruntled resident of Eden, impeded in her quest to
"develop her personality" by her lazy husband, Adam. Preferring the easy
life, where he can nap in the sun, Adam refuses to allow Eve to leave, con-
tending that their "lease" prohibits it. But Eve longs for excitement. When
O L O
Adam warns her that leaving would only bring them trouble, she proclaims,
"If trouble means something that makes your blood run through your veins
like seltzer water—Adam, my man, give me trouble."
All of Eve's attempts to spur passion in Adam fail; he just wants to hold
hands. So when he sets out to go fishing, she decides to get them evicted by
eating apples from the forbidden tree. She cons the snake into fetching a few
from its branches. "Now get me a big one," she instructs. "I feel like doin' a
big apple." Disguising the forbidden fruit as applesauce, she offers it to
Adam. "Here," she murmurs, "have a bite of this." He swallows and experi-
ences an overwhelming attraction to Eve. A smack accompanied by a clap of
thunder sends him reeling. "Eve," he cries, "what was that?" "That," she
O
breathes,' "was the original

O
kiss."13
Before many even heard West's next sketch, where she invited Charlie
McCarthy to "come up and see me. . . . I'll let you play in my woodpile,"
switchboards at NBC stations across the country were ablaze with calls.
Outraged listeners jammed phone lines with complaints about West's inde-
cent rendition of Eve, which the network had unwisely presented on a Sun-
day evening. It was just the beginning. Catholic leaders, journalists, women's
clubs,' and congressmen
o
denounced NBC,' Chase and Sanborn,' Edgar o
Bergen, Don Ameche, Arch Oboler, and, of course, Mae West. Her appear-
ance was described as "profane,""filthy,""obscene,""horrible blasphemy," and
"vomitous." The Legion of Decency began agitating for a production code
for radio. New York congressman
O
Donald O'Toole,' who referred to West as
a "certain so-called actress who has served, in the past, a jail sentence for giv-
ing an indecent theatrical performance," declared on the floor of the House
of Representatives that the Adam and Eve skit was an "all time low in this
particular field." Some sectors called on the Federal Communications Com-
mission to suspend the licenses of stations that had broadcast the show. The
New York Sun commented, "Miss West had her day in court, her day in the
film, and now her night on the air."
A flurry of explanations, denials, and apologies was forthcoming. Don
Ameche claimed that he was so offended by the script that he wanted to
walk out but his contract prohibited it. Neither Charlie McCarthy nor his
partner had much to say; Bergen retreated to Palm Springs without com-
ment. West was also unavailable to reporters, but her representatives in-
sisted that she had also expressed reservations regarding the script before
airtime. The J. Walter Thompson Company, the advertising agency that co-
ordinated the show for Chase and Sanborn, took credit for the script, apolo-
gized to NBC, and assured all parties that "the same mistake will not be
14
made again,"
o
At first, NBC was defensive. One network boss, Don Oilman, maintained
that Oboler had toned down a script they had used several times before with
no complaint. He denied reports that West had ad-libbed and contended
that it was her "inflection" that created the controversy. (Indeed, she had de-
livered her lines as written.)7 "The whole situation is regrettable,"he
o ' told re-
porters, "but I am certain the objectionable features were solely a matter of
interpretation." Again, West had succeeded. It was not what she had said, it
was how she said it. Breen might o
have shut down her cinematic channels for
signification:
O '
she now rebelled through
O
a new medium. Martin Quigley^- O J
ranted against her latest indiscretion, roaring that she was "a symbolism of
attainable sex, garnished with ostrich plumes of the red plush parlor period."
It was up to the audience to hear whatever message they pleased, or feared.
Later Bergen contended that the controversy was inevitable: "If she says 'I've
got appendicitis,' it sounds like sex."15
West's victory was short-lived. While for a moment she had found an-
other platform
r
for signification,
o '
it did not last long.
o
With the outcry
J
for ra-
dio's regulation and the criticism of the FCC, something had to be done. The
232 * M A E * W E S T
following Sunday, an announcer read over the air an apology on behalf of

NBC, Chase and Sanborn, and the J. Walter Thompson Company. Radio ex-
ecutives then agreed
o
to exile Mae West from the airwaves;' NBC even
banned the mention of her name on all of its affiliates. However, the network
still received an official reprimand from the FCC. One of West's studio
bosses was unconcerned: "You don't hear any shooting from the boys in the
street do you? West's public likes that stuff."16
Nonetheless, many speculated the studio was holding back Every Day's a
Holidays release to allow the furor to die. Some predicted that her latest trans-
gression would draw bigger audiences. When the film finally hit the screens in
mid-January, critics registered divided reactions. Several heralded it as reveal-
ing a pleasingly new Mae West. Motion Picture Daily declared it "louder and
funnier" as well as cleaner than any of her other films. The Indianapolis Star
praised West for going decent without becoming a "sissy." Yet many mourned
the loss of the old ribald Westian persona. "Clean and dull" was the New York
Herald Tribune's opinion. The New York Times lamented, "Sex ain't what it used
to be or maybe Miss West isn't." Ironically, one exhibitor complained that "the
cleanest of the Wests is so clean that it is disappointing."17
Indeed, Every Day's a Holiday proved disappointing. After an initial wel-
come at the box office, ticket sales dropped rapidly. One New Hampshire
theater owner reported that "the Mae West fans—if there are any left—
were on their holiday. We didn't see them at our theater." Some Hollywood
circles wagered that Mae West was really finished, that the novelty had fi-
nally worn off. For the first time, after four years of profit, a Mae West
movie lost money.18
Breen's attack on Mae's signifying style had succeeded. French critic Co-
lette mourned the loss of the original o
West. She noted that West had
slimmed down but bemoaned the sacrifice of Mae's ample figure, which she
viewed as the actress's most powerful asset. Denouncing the film, she main-
tained that Mae's "essential signification of sensuality and animality abandons
the shrunken body." Then Colette offered a eulogy:
She alone, out of an enormous and dull catalogueo

of heroines,' does not
get married at the end of die film, does not die, does not take the road to
exile, does not gaze sadly at her declining youth in a silver-framed mir-
ror. . . . She alone has no parents, no children, no husband. This impu-
dent woman is, in her style, as solitary as Chaplin used to be.19
Aside from Breen's triumphant tampering with West's work, Every Day's a
Holiday suffered numerous other impediments. Although the economy had
improved, the nation experienced another downturn in 1937. For people

who had endured more than eight years of depression, it was disheartening.
The resurgence of financial uncertainty forced many to tighten their belts
and hurt ticket sales for many films, including Every Day's a Holiday. It was
one thingo to sacrifice a little to see the working-class
o
heroine when she was
at her best, baddest, and bawdiest, but it was another to shell out money for
a clean Mae West picture.
Another force that was inducing changes in the film industry also had an
impact on West's career. The economic slump of 1937—1938 reignited the
block-booking controversy. Exhibitors exploited the dip in attendance to re-
new their protest campaign. They cited fans' complaints, not so much about
the salaciousness of the movies but rather about their blandness. In the
spring of 1938, just as exhibitors entered into their annual negotiations with
the studios, their representatives ran a large announcement in the Hollywood
Reporter declaring some of Hollywood's major stars "box office poison." West
joined Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, and Joan Crawford on a
list that contained a number of actresses famous for their portrayals of strong
women. Breen's victorious enforcement of the Production Code had come
at a high
o
cost to the studios;' the result forced some of the era's most com-
manding actresses into diluted roles, unsuited for their talents. While savvy
observers immediately linked the exhibitors' actions to their continued agi-
tation against block booking, the label of "box office poison" badly damaged
these actresses' careers. It became a no-win situation: Breen manipulated
scripts, poor scripts produced poor films, poor films produced poor box of-
fice receipts. In turn, the stars shouldered the blame. Paramount scratched
Dietrich's pending film and canceled her contract. Hepburn found herself in
a similar situation. West foughto
to hang
o
on.
These forces shifted the cinematic portrayal of women in a safer, more
traditional direction. The biggest success of the 1937 1938 season was Walt
Disney's first animated feature, the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
West's reaction was flip: She retorted, "I used to be Snow White but I
drifted." The other top films of the season, A Star Is Born, starring Janet
Gaynor, and Marie Antoinette with Norma Shearer, showed ambitious women
paying a heavy price for their public ambitions. It was hardly a fertile atmos-
phere for Mae West or Diamond Lil. When confronted by Every Day's a Hol-
iday's disappointing showing, she confidently proclaimed, "The only picture
to make money recently was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and that would
have made twice as much if they had let me play Snow White."20
West's situation became even more precarious with a downturn in
Emanuel Cohen's fortunes. In January, after tensions had escalated between
234 M A E * WEST
the exiled producer and Adolph Zukor, Paramount severed connections

with Cohen. This effectively terminated Paramount's relations with all of
Cohen's stars, including Mae West. Reports circulated that Cohen intended
to jettison her, tired of her continued insistence on starring as Catherine the
Great. But for the time being, he scheduled her for a ten-week nationwide
personal appearance tour to promote Every Day's a Holiday.
For these personal appearances, West resurrected, on a grand scale, her
old vaudeville act. She assembled a large troupe that included a leading man,
Milton Watson, a male chorus in evening dress dubbed the "Sextet," a black
' O '
maid, and an orchestra. A member of the troupe remembered West as a

hard-driving perfectionist, constantly rehearsing and showing little patience
for unprofessionalism. Watson told Sidney Skolsky that West prohibited him
from pursuing love affairs during the tour. "Miss West," Skolsky reported,
"said that the trouble with most of the Hollywood leading men is that they
are all kissed out when they get on the screen."21
The tour opened in Los Angeles, continued on across the Midwest, and
finally ended up in New York City in April. While her detractors back in
Hollywood toasted her final demise, the tour proved they were wrong.
Across the country, crowds greeted and cheered Mae West at depots. When
she arrived in New York, Penn Station was mobbed. The New York Times
noted that she was welcomed by "porters, commuters, arriving or departing
Southerners, and an indiscriminate mob of hoydens, street urchins and pub-
lic school pupils with autograph albums who tugged at the iron gates and
hooted 'Hey Mae.' " The depot and surrounding streets were so packed that
West had to sneak through the baggage department to a car waiting to whisk
her away. Fans filled theaters to see her live show. In most locations, West
and her troupe played long after Every Day's a Holiday had come and gone,
breaking box office records. Regardless of those who pronounced West a
"freak attraction" whose career was over, fans stood loyally by.22
Mae enjoyed performing before live audiences again but found the tour's
pace exhausting. She worked herself and the cast hard, on occasion insisting
on an extra rehearsal between shows. The six, sometimes seven, appear-
ances a day left her weary. She frequently refused to see old friends or enter-
tain guests, remaining surrounded by bodyguards, Jim Timony, Daisy Jones,
and often local police. But in Newark she generously received fifteen of her
father's old boxingo buddies,' furnishingo each a &generous wad of cash and a
new suit.
The tour served several purposes. First and foremost, it liberated the
Westian persona, to some degree, from the clutches of censorship. With no
Joe Breen in the audience, West got away with much more in person than
she did on the screen. In turn, the promise of the original and unadulterated
West drew out the fans. And Mae West's admirers—especially the women—
were not disappointed. Discussing her male chorus line with a reporter, she
remarked, "They always put pretty dames on the stage for the men, but how
about the women? Don't the women like to look at somebody handsome
sometimes?" She victoriously reasserted her female heroine, her "articulate
image," totally dominating the male pseudo-Florodora sextet. It was a charac-
ter that women could project themselves into and one that could never be
completely possessed by the male spectator.23
West claimed that when she returned from her tour in the spring of 19 3 8,
Cohen bombarded her with scripts, all of which she rejected. She continued
to insist on playing Catherine the Great. In September, she formally pre-
sented her Catherine the Great screenplay to Cohen. He turned her down
flat, and they finally parted ways. Many in Hollywood were now satisfied that
West had reached her end. When studio underlings o
at MGM suggested
oo
her
for the role of Gone With the Wind's brothel madam, Belle Watling, producer
David O. Selznick scoffed; she was "out of the question of course."24
In the meantime, West returned to the stage and early in 1939 took the
personal appearance troupe out for another tour. As before, devoted fans
packed theaters. At a New York stop, she unveiled plans to begin filming
Catherine the Great that spring with her own production company. When a re-
porter expressed reservations that her trademark "nasal Brooklyn drawl"
would blemish her portrayal of a Russian empress, she retorted, "Why
shouldn't I play Catherine? The part fits my personality fine. She changed
her men like she changed her clothes." For Mae, Catherine the Great's life
represented an ultimate triumph in the struggle between the genders.25
Still, coverage of Mae West's career in fan magazines and gossip columns
plummeted. She was a married woman, unattainable and not a real con-
tender in the fantasy of romance. No longer did fan magazines seek her ad-
vice for the lovelorn: She had fallen for a seedy vaudevillian and a teenage
marriage. No more could she discuss Hollywood's sexiest men: It was bad
taste for a married woman, not to mention for a woman of her age, to be
ogling young actors.
West realized that she needed to revamp her image to retain her position
in the American imagination. When discussing the Catherine project, she
began to appropriate the Russian empress's reputation. By borrowing such
an image she absorbed Catherine's appeal as the people's empress who en-
joyed young lovers throughout her lifetime. With Catherine, West could
grow old gracefully. She would reinvent herself in an attempt to compel the
youth-obsessed public to accept a forty-five-year-old sexual woman. It was
236 MAE * WEST
critical for Mae West to continue to claim her desirability, for within her
philosophy of gender relations, a woman's most powerful weapon was sex.
To the New York Post, West boasted of Catherine's accomplishments in the
realm of 1'amour. "When she was sixty-eight," Mae declared, "she still had a
lover of twenty-two. And not because she was the empress, either. She still
had plenty of sex appeal."26
By the end of May 1939, when West returned from touring, she had en-
tered into negotiations with Universal Studios to co-star with another major
cinematic comedian, W. C. Fields, in a new film. She entered the project
with reservations. While she recognized Fields's genius, she was uncomfort-
O O '
able with his reputation as a drinker. Universal, anxious to move ahead, of-
fered her a generous contract of $300,000 for the film, compensation for a
screenplay, and a promise that if Fields showed up inebriated, he would be
dismissed for the day. It happened only once. The first time Fields came
staggering in, West commanded, "Pour him out of here." Fields bowed and
tipped his hat to her as he was rushed off the set.
Bringing two stars of such distinctive talents together proved to be a chal-
lenge for studio executives. Both West and Fields were legendarily difficult
and insisted on meticulous control over their performances. Universal had to
produce a vehicle acceptable to both stars, as well as to the censors and pub-
lic. In early May, Fields submitted a story called December and Mae, in which
the two, married in name only, appeared as co-owners of an 188os western
saloon. That summer,' the studio assigned
o
screenwriter Grover Jlones to the
project. At the end of July, Fields reviewed Jones's script and immediately
fired off a letter to the studio protesting its weaknesses. In another to West,
urging that they collaborate, he effused, "I have great admiration for you as a
writer and actress and for you yourself." West never replied.
At the end of August, Fields received a final draft of the script, which in-
furiated him even further. He sent a thunderingtocondemnation of the screen-
play along with detailed criticism to Universal. Charging that his part was
more suitable to "Shirley Temple" than W. C. Fields, he found West's role
was equally inappropriate. "Here's Mae West," he wrote sarcastically. "Oh
boy—will she hand them a line. Look, she's sewing something—a 'Sam-
pler'—What the Hell's a sampler?" After an attempt to back out of the pro-
ject failed, Fields was reduced to inserting his material into drafts of the
screenplay, even after shooting began.27
It may be no coincidence that in the midst of the script dispute, an anony-
mous source tipped off Breen that Universal was planning a film with the
two stars, contending that writers had been ordered "to make it plenty
dirty." Signed "a listening post in Hollywood," the letter warned that the
"smut gags" were so subtle that they would slip by the censors to be deci-
phered by more worldly filmgoers.28
It is likely that the script that Fields found so abominable was conceived
by West and Jones. The original contained telltale Westian imprints—a
shake dance, a love affair with a handsome Indian warrior, and a rendition of
"Frankie and Johnny" in a Native American language. After Fields's death,
West—whom Fields described as "a plumber's idea of Cleopatra"—insisted
that he had very little to do with the writing and that she had been the
script's true author.29
When Breen received the script, eventually called My Little Chickadee, in
late September, he declared the story acceptable but cited several scenes,
many with West, as Code violations. He deleted West's fling with the Indian
warrior and, fearing she intended to slip in a shimmy, eliminated all of her
dance scenes. Throughout the fall, even after the film went into production,
Breen rejected dialogue and scenes, warning Universal that West's character
could not offer any "indication of sex" or "undue exposure."30
That December,' after months of wrangling o o
amongo the studio,' stars,' and
censors, shooting wrapped up. In this film, West created the character of
Flower Belle Lee, who is banished from her hometown for her shameful re-
lationship with the notorious Masked Bandit. On the train bound for the
next town, Greasewood City, she meets the inept snake oil salesman Cuth-
bert J. Twillie, played by Fields. Thinking he is wealthy, she marries him,
only to discover once they reach Greasewood City that his money is counter-
feit, an advertising gimmick. There the local saloon proprietor and the
newspaper editor are smitten with Flower Belle, who also continues her af-
fair with the Masked Bandit. She briefly substitutes at the local schoolhouse,
reciting the day's lesson, "I am a good boy. I am a good man. I am a good
o J ' O J O O
woman." She slaps her pointer down. "What is this? Propaganda?"

Although she rejects him, Twillie continues to pursue Flower Belle, disguis-
ing himself as the Masked Bandit. She sees through his masquerade, but the
townsfolk, believing he is the real bandit, drag him into the town square to
lynch him. Flower Belle, who has discovered that the saloonkeeper is really the
Masked Bandit, compels him to return all his stolen booty, in full view of
Greasewood City's residents. Twillie's life is saved, and in the end Flower Belle
returns her wedding ring to him, confessing that their nuptials were faked by
an impostor posing as a minister. As they part, Twillie tells her, "Anytime
you're near the Gampain Hills, you must come up and see me sometime."
Flower Belle smiles, "Oh yeah, yeah, I'll do that, my little chickadee."31
Universal put considerable effort into promoting My Little Chickadee.
Press releases celebrated the pairing of the era's most famous comedic per-
238 M A E * WEST
formers. On her part, West worked to silence rumors that the two super-
stars were feuding. She insisted to the New York Times that she enjoyed a per-
fectly harmonious relationship with Fields. She also maintained that they
shared a common commitment to the picture's success and that their charac-
ters, despite their differences, were complementary. Certainly, the West and
Fields partnership appeared thoroughly mismatched as well as volatile.
Fields's character was hardly a typical Westian leading man: He was luckless,
not handsome, misogynistic, and a buffoon.
Yet West professed, "Our styles don't conflict." In part West's sunny as-
sessment derived from a vigilant studio public relations campaign. But in
many ways she was correct—Fields and West were kindred spirits. Both
were nurtured in vaudeville, carefully attuned to the importance of timing
and delivery. And both were known for their adept manipulation of lan-
guage. Among Fields's most prized possessions was his dictionary; he was
constantly searching for word combinations that carried subtle meanings
just by sound alone. His style differed from Mae's; one writer characterized
Westian dialogue as "sparse" and Fields's handiwork as "rococo." However,
their approach to language was similar; both appreciated the multiplicity of
messages that could be imparted with adept verbal games.32
For these two language artists, their screen encounter was a playful war
of words. A scene ad-libbed by Fields blurred the fantasy of the conflict be-
tween Flower Belle and Twillie with the reality of two master wordsmiths
squaring off to do battle. "You are the epitome of erudition," Twillie fawn-
ingly praises Flower Belle. Then he remarks out of the side of his mouth,
"Double superlative, can you handle it?" The camera cuts to West, who in
her classic drawl responds, "Yeah, and I can kick it around too." Appropriat-
ing this line from Sophie Tucker, who was famous for saying, "Gentlemen
don't love, they just like to kick it around," Mae matched Fields's challenge
and upended gender expectations. Throughout the production as well as the
film, a contest over the use of language raged between Fields and West. And
at the film's end, when the two reverse lines, they parody each other, almost
signifying a draw in this linguistic match.33
The West and Fields pairing also teamed up two trickster figures. While
Fields's tricksterism diverges from West's—he plays the fool, oblivious to
the chaos he creates—nonetheless, like Mae he disrupts accepted order.
Both characters stand apart from the narrative while propelling the action
along. They are weaker figures, Mae as a woman and W. C. as a silly eccen-
tric. Regardless, they both emerge as victors. Flower Belle has the Masked
Bandit and the handsome newspaper editor showering her with affection,
and while Fields, the comedic tragedian,
7
O *
fails to win the woman he loves, he
is free to totter off and create more mayhem. Their presence restores order
in Greasewood City; no longer will the residents be plagued by the Masked
Bandit's crime spree.
The much anticipated West and Fields collaboration finally debuted at the
beginning of February 1940. Most critics immediately disparaged the film.
The Hollywood Reporter observed that "the story doesn't amount to much,"
and the New York Times blasted it for "the generally bad odor it exudes." Variety
was kinder;' labelingo the humor as "slim,"' it predicted
r success through
& the
loyal support of West's and Fields's fans.34
Variety guessed right. Moviegoers lined up at ticket offices for My Little
Chickadee. The film still fell short of Mae's halcyon days of 1933—1934 but
outdistanced Fields's more recent efforts. It brought the studio a tidy profit,
and it was clean, or obtuse, enough to remain in circulation for years. After
her two-year absence, West's return to the screen was a success.
Much of My Little Chickadee's popularity may have resulted from the tur-
bulence of the times operating in tandem with the reemergence of the old
West. Mae and W. C. were familiar faces and a welcome diversion from the
escalation of international antagonisms. In September 1939, just as the film
went into production, Hitler invaded Poland and France. Together, France
and England declared war on Germany. In the Pacific, tensions grew with
Japanese aggression. In 1940, FDR ran for an unprecedented third term,
promising to keep America off the battlefield. Although Americans clung to
isolationism, many feared it would be impossible to remain aloof from inten-
sifying international conflicts.
In the middle of growing global disarray, My Little Chickadee hit theater
screens. One journalist, Delight Evans, celebrated West's comeback. Noting
that "the world has changed" since Mae's heyday of the mid-thirties, Evans
averred that she was "welcome as a breath of springtime or maybe I should
say a whiff of rich ripe summer." This time Breen had failed to completely
impede the return of the old West; Mae successfully evoked the spirit of Di-
amond Lil, signifying the comforting presence of the trickster in a world
again gone awry. Flower Belle, whose name resonated with Diamond Lil's,
mirrored some of her old sauciness. Although o
Breen excised the interracial
relationship between Flower Belle and her Native American paramour, with
Universal on her side, Mae refused to allow her character to be completely
sanitized. She evoked, through a variety of means, memories of her former
transgressiveness, reminding audiences of Flower Belle's legacy by recycling
situations and dialogue verbatim from her earlier films and plays. Further-
more, the blues voice whispered through with Flower Belle's repeated invi-
tation to come up and see her as well as in the film's one song, a bluesy
240 MAE * WEST
lament about a mining accident. West also signified restlessness with the
censorship. One suitor ponders, "I wonder what kind of woman you really
35
are?" Flower Belle agonizes,
O 7 "Too bad I can't Ogive out samples."
1
Despite My Little Chickadees popularity, West's film career stagnated dur-

ingO the earlyJ years
J
of World War II. To a great
O
degree,
O '
it was her own doing.
O
She clung o to her hopes

r of bringing
o o Catherine the Great to the screen and had
decided it should be in Technicolor, a pricey proposition that no studio
would back. But unlike the period between Every Day's a Holiday and My Lit-
tle Chickadee, when the studios backed away, between 1940 and 1943 re~
ceived several offers. Universal attempted unsuccessfully to woo her back
for another film. MGM courted her to play opposite Wallace Beery, and
later the press reported that she would appear in a spy picture with John
Barrymore. Both projects fell through. According to West, she was too hard
to please. "Every script presented to me, no matter how imaginative a story,
was built around a woman and man," she remembered. "Mae West pictures,
as written by me, were built around a woman and men, the more the better."
She refused to succumb to the Hollywood love story genre; Mae had forged
her own formula—a female heroine, not only pursued by men but in con-
stant battle with them. Studio executives, despite years of dealing with Mae
West, failed to understand her. Central in all her work were issues of power
and gender conflict; anything that minimized such themes was not only un-
acceptable but unthinkable for the Mae West character.36
In part, Mae still suffered from the repercussions of the Frank Wallace
scandal. Now that she was identified as an older and married woman, society
perceived her differently. Her desirability and allure became no longer con-
testing but contested. Reviewers rejected the notion of a middle-aged sex
siren. The New York Times scolded her, "It's one thing to burlesque sex and
quite another to be burlesqued by it." Her Ravenswood apartment stood no
longer as a den of pleasurable iniquity but rather as a symbol of eccentric de-
cline. When a Time magazine reporter came up in 1943, the year she turned
fifty, his depiction sounded more like that of a grandmother's dusty attic than
a Hollywood starlet's retreat. He described the air as reeking with the "husky
odor" of perfume and the furniture as "white satin brocade, slowly aging."37
West foughto back,J continuingo to revise her rpublic image.& A Life j magazine
o
layout showed her in a skintight silk negligee, posed with one hand on her
hip, admiring herself in one of her numerous mirrors. Another revealed her
lounging in her Ravenswood bed, eyes rolled skyward. One story ran with a
photo of her writing her latest novel in bed, the article's title blaring, "Never
Grows Old!" West's faith in mind power rang through. "Too many women
make the mistake of waking up some morning and saying, 'I am no longer at-
BRING ME RABELAIS 24!
tractive to men,' " she told the reporter. "That does it, brother, from then on
they're not!" Key to allure and sensuality was self-perception. "There are
others," West pontificated, "who keep right on thinking they can be some-
thing special to a certain man—and they are." This piece assured fans that
Mae West was still "a torrid creature" and contended that the marriage ts scan-
dal had induced her into "retirement until she felt the nation was ready to
appreciate her once more."38
West, in her battle against social conventions that desexed older and mar-
ried women, relied increasingly on her status as an icon. However, until the
disclosure of her marriage
o
and true age,
o '
observers had been divided. Was Mae
real or an illusion? Was she serious or was she kidding? While she was literally
both, the reality that Mae West was married compelled many to view her as
pure fiction, a symbol that represented but did not possess sexuality. More and
more, she appeared as an illusion. Many concluded that if she was serious, she
was self-deceived. In 1943, the Time assessment signaled a turning point in the
general perception of Mae West's star image. In fact, the reporter observed
that she entered the room and greeted him "like a parody of herself."
Many have contended that West was clinging to an image of youthful de-
sirability that had long passed her by. However, their assessment rested in the
assumption that Mae West, the star, had reached an age where she was no
longer entitled to play the role of Mae West, the star. Yet she remained de-
termined to defy gender norms that denied women over forty their claim to
their sexuality and embraced her status as a signifier of sex and bold woman-
hood. She had always burlesqued her star persona, itself grounded in a bur-
lesque of celebrity. Increasingly, she moved away from proclaiming her
private life as the opposite of her stage persona; she began to assert that Lil's
badness was real. More than ever, her performance as the star Mae West
seemed to confirm her linkage to her characters. When an Annapolis plebe
and his date visited her backstage at an appearance in 1943, she pulled him
aside and whispered, "You should have come alone, sonny." When she inter-
viewed the young Kirk Douglas in her apartment for a possible role, she re-
ceived him in a sheer negligee. Informed that the British Royal Air Force had
nicknamed their life vests "Mae Wests," she slyly remarked, "Sort of makes
me feel like I started a second front of my own."39
As the public Mae West struggled to revamp her image, the private Mae
West continued to confront a series of challenges.o
She fought
o
off Mark Lin-
der's attempts to lay claim to She Done Him Wrong. New York state courts de-
manded she pay back taxes on income earned between 193 i and 1933. She
faced another extortion attempt, this time by a teenager who told police he
just wanted to meet movie stars. But most annoying were Frank Wallace's
242 M A E** WEST
persistent attempts at pushing his claims to her fortune. Finally, in the sum-
mer of 1943, he granted West a divorce in exchange for a generous undis-
~s i -* ' O O O
closed out-of-court settlement. Wallace retired with Trixie La Mae to her

hometown of Henderson, Kentucky.40
In the early 19408, West was one of Hollywood's wealthiest women. Her
wise land investments earned tremendous returns. Years of backing Chalky
Wright paid off when he became the world featherweight champion in
1941. (West compelled Morrie Cohen to override the racism against black
boxers and arrange the match.) Although her career was at a standstill, she
O ' O 7
enjoyed continued national and international fame. Yet, she claimed, she felt
a void in her life. She told of a suitor, an unnamed notoriously violent gang-
ster, who had compelled her into a phase of introspection—to weigh good
against evil, much as Lil had done. Between fall 1941 and spring 1942, she
decided to devote her energies to investigating spirituality and the possibility
of life after death.
Since her mother's death, West had remained skeptical about faith. She
claimed she rejected the concept of eternal life and had spurned seances as
chicanery. However, despite these statements, she clearly maintained some
curiosity regarding spiritual matters. Soon after her father's passing, she
hosted a seance at the celebrity desert resort La Quinta. She claimed it was
conducted by aviatrix Amelia Earhart, whose husband, George Putnam,
worked for Paramount and had overseen Go Wfat Young Bern's premiere. Mae
believed that she had made contact with her father using spirit tapping, in
which the deceased supposedly tap out messages for the living. Her interest
in the supernatural, was also piqued when, in the late thirties, Sri Deva Ram
Sukul showed up at Jim Timony's Holly town Theater. Mae was delighted,
and the Sri joined her inner circle, always close at hand to give her advice.
West's work indicates that the sacred was never too far from her mind.
She wrote of her continued interest in the "closeness of goodness and evil
embedded" in the human soul. Since Diamond Lil, Mae had explored the jux-
taposition of purity and wickedness, reaching a climax with Klondike Annie, a
film that clearly indicated her ongoing preoccupation with religion. Mae also
dabbled in astrology, numerology, and fortune telling and always adhered to
a rigid set of superstitions. Despite her condemnation by the Legion of De-
cency, she also claimed she attended mass with Jim Timony, which she de-
scribed as "restful and inspirational." Mae's mind was not always on sin; she
did a fair amount of contemplation of salvation as well. Her frustration with
mainstream religions
O
came from the lack of tangible,
O '
definite 1proof of the
hereafter. Unlike sin, salvation did not appear to manifest itself as experien-
tial. "It was not that I was jaded," she wrote. "It was only that I had no an-
swers to seriouse things"
B R I N G ME RABELAIS 243
Mae's spiritual journey took her toward religious alternatives. In the fall
of 1941, she discovered an advertisement in a Los Angeles newspaper for a
spiritualist convention where a Universalist minister, the Reverend Jack
Kelly, was lecturing on extrasensory perception. She dispatched Jim Timony
to investigate, and he returned with glowing reports of Kelly's remarkable
abilities. After meeting Kelly and testing his ESP, she began studying his
teachings and techniques. He became Mae's frequent guest when in Los An-
geles, and she supported his ministry with generous contributions.
Still seekinger* assurance of eternal life,' West became determined to de-
velop her own psychic abilities. She solicited assistance from the Reverend
Mae M. Taylor of the Spiritualist Science Church of Hollywood, who in-
structed her on communicating directly with the spirit world. Taylor taught
a meditative technique that encouraged practitioners to banish all conscious
thoughts so that "the inner voice" could be clearly discerned. West worked
diligently to achieve a meditative state; for three weeks she sequestered her-
self each dayJ in a darkened room,' striving o
to cleanse her mind and seeking
o
a
connection with the spiritual realm.
Finally, in the third week, she claimed to have a breakthrough. She began
to hear psychic voices, and before long their images became clear. In later
years, she told of her first visit from a small female child named Juliet, who
greeted her with "Good morning, good morning, good morning, dear." Next
came a deep masculine voice, emanating, she asserted, from her solar
plexus; his speech, peppered with "thees" and "thous," was completely in-
comprehensible to her. She received a visitation from her mother, dressed in
black, telling her, "There's so much to do ... there are so many to bring
over." According to her recollections, the visions became so frequent that she
could hardly sleep at night. Finally, one night a ring of spirits, mostly men at-
tired in Victorian dress, floated above her bed, continuing to chatter. She
' 7
o
told one interviewer that, exhausted, she pleaded, "I have to get my sleep.
I'm a working girl! Could we cut down on the visits?" While they appeared
less regularly, she claimed to have visions for the rest of her life.42
It is possible that West manufactured such stories, either as jokes on pry-
ingO Jjournalists or as a challenge
O
to conventional religious
O
thought.
O
However,'
she took her spiritualism seriously. While some would classify Mae's visions
as signs of instability, her interest in unconventional religious beliefs and
spiritualism was not entirely out of the ordinary. Los Angeles, and in partic-
ular Hollywood, boasted a variety of nontraditional sects and cults, many fo-
cusing on mind power, positive thinking, and spiritualism. Traditionally,
religious alternatives like spiritualism drew many women. Such belief sys-
tems provided channels by which female believers could not only explain the
unexplainable but also rebel against the mainstream male-dominated reli-
244 MAE * WEST
gious hierarchy. Women were able to assert more power in nontraditional

faiths, and, no doubt, such options were enticing to someone like Mae West,
who had made a career out of resisting patriarchy. Significantly, it was not
Kelly but a female psychic who assisted Mae in finding the spiritual forces
within her. And her first voices were polar opposites, male and female, that
emanated from her body—a metaphor for the double-voicedness that had
longo ograced her work.
It is also not surprising that West grew frustrated with mediums and de-
cided to contact the spirit world herself. Characteristically, she needed to be
in control not only of her material but also of her sacred affairs. She was not
going to surrender ecclesiastical authority to anyone, especially to the men
who dominated conventional religious institutions. She cited I Corinthians
12:7 as her inspiration: "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every
man to profit withal." In this configuration, everyone, regardless of gender,
race, or class, had access to God's inner-dwelling spirit. In all realms, Mae
had made a claim to parity and authority. Finally, after years of struggling
with faith, she found a satisfactory route to spiritual equality.
Satisfied that she had found evidence for faith, Mae emerged with re-
' O
newed energy. Not surprisingly, her quest involved issues of identity. She
embraced the notion of reincarnation,' revising o
it to conclude that Catherine
the Great was a "pre-incarnation" of herself. She decided that she was des-
tined to play the Russian empress. Reinvigorated, she plunged into the pro-
ject, this time determined to stage it as a play. In early 1943, the Shuberts
appeared interested, but a search for other investors failed. Yet Mae was
confident. The year 1943, according to her numerological computations,
equaled eight, her lucky number.43
In early 1943, as West worked on Catherine, Gregory Ratoff approached
her with an idea for a new film for Columbia Pictures to be called Heat's On.
Additionally, he expressed interest in producing Catherine the Great for the
stage. Ratoff was an old friend and a relative by marriage. After hearing his
pitch, Mae signed on and announced her return to the screen.
But she soon grew impatient. Delayed by a commitment to another film,
Ratoff disappeared for several weeks. Once free, he began shooting extravagant
musical numbers without a completed script. The Breen office immediately
excised West's son?o "Can't Be Bothered,"' objecting
J
to
o
the lyric
y
"I'm ogiving
o
it to
somebody new." According to West, after the musical numbers were finished, a
script materialized. While Breen approved it with a few changes, West was
outraged. She found herself playing the role of an aging and jealous actress, Fay
Lawrence, scheming to prevent an ingenue from taking her place in a Broadway
show. She immediately informed Ratoff that the project was off.44
After some tense sessions, Rat off prevailed and convinced her to stay on.
Losing his star attraction would have not only plunged him into bankruptcy
but,' accordingoto West,' also angered
o
some of his backers,' who had ties to or-
ganized crime. She agreed to rewrite her scenes and insert them into
Ratoff's script.
While allowing West to rework her part seemed like a reasonable solu-
tion, her revisions significantly altered the plotline, forcing Ratoff to revise
the film as he was shootingo it. One of the screenwriters brought o in to r patch
up the script remembered filming as chaotic. Scenes and dialogue were
rewritten only hours before shooting; West and Ratoff constantly battled
each other over almost every aspect of the production.
The result was a jumbled, cut-rate movie, far from the carefully crafted
earlier Mae West films. For the first time since Night After Night, West had
not exerted complete creative control over her work. Working with Ratoff
left her with a vehicle that was not a Mae West film but a film with Mae
West. She did manage to slip in a few Westianisms, and, briefly, a little of the
bold sensuality still smoldered. When a suitor asks, "Doesn't your con-
science bother you?" Fay calmly replies, "No, it annoys me."45
Despite the friction between West and Ratoff over Heat's On, the filming
proved that Hollywood had become a somewhat different place. Ratoff re-
cruited African-American performer Hazel Scott for two musical numbers.
Scott compelled him to treat her sequences with dignity; instead of Ratoff's
planned mammy costume she appeared in evening dress and in a military
uniform. When cor respondents from two African-American newspapers,
the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier, arrived at the studio to inter-
view Scott, it became clear that on this set, race relations had changed. They
found Scott dining with white colleagues; that kind of interracial mixing had
been scandalous when Mae had lunched with Louis Armstrong only six years
before. While the journalists complained that Scott snubbed them, they in-
formed their readers that they received a warm welcome from Heat's On's
star attraction, Mae West.
"The title is a misnomer," the New York Times declared in its review of West's
latest, "for the heat is off, but definitely." Overwhelmingly, this film received
negative reviews. Most decried it as a letdown. Although Variety predicted it
would see average ticket sales, fans stayed away. The New York Times, while cit-
ingo her trademark signifying
o J o
swagger
Co
as "more articulate than words,"' declared
that she no longer possessed the fire of her earlier years. Time found the film
"weary" but insisted that its weaknesses resulted from Mae's diminutive role.
"West is not on-screen half enough," the reporter wrote. "But she is still one of
themost entertainng original personalities in pictures.
and original
246 MAE * WEST
West acknowledged the film's failure. She declared it a "dismal experience"

and announced that she would never return to the screen again o
unless she was
guaranteed total control. Her deep dissatisfaction may have been most
poignantly expressed within the film itself. Borrowing a line from Shake-
speare's Macbeth, Fay Lawrence detachedly observes that another character's
ravings are "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."47
In the summer of 1943, even before Heat's On was in production, the New
York Times received an unusual telegram.
o
The messageo
read, "Unless unfore-
seen developments occur, I will appear for Michael Todd in my play' Cather-
ine Was Great.' She ruled Russia with one hand and her men with another."
It was signed, "Imperially yours, Catherine the Great; sincerely yours, Mae
West." After finishing Heat's On, West at last launched into the final phases of
bringing
o her
b script,
i ' now called Catherine Was Great, to the New York stage. o
She invested some of her own money and, with the Shuberts' help, secured
backingO from the energetic
O
and extravagant
O
producer Michael Todd. If the
i
play was a success, she would reap fifty percent of the box office receipts.48
Todd, as was his reputation, went all out for the production, spending
$ i £0,000 on the set and props. His idea was to stage the most opulent and
outrageous of plays. West's gowns were expensive and elaborate. One bore a
train that weighed over seventy-five pounds, and her crowns towered almost
two feet above her head. At a casting call in New York City in May 1944, she
hired an army of tall—all over six feet—and handsome actors to play
Catherine's guardsmen and filled out the rest of the cast, which was almost
entirely male, with equally striking young men.
Early that summer, West launched into rehearsals. Surrounded by her en-
tourage, including Jim Timony and the Sri, she began preparing for a tryout
run in early July. Thoroughly dedicated to her vision of Catherine, West at-
tempted to dominate the production. As she had with her previous plays and
films,' she assumed the role of director,' drivingOthe cast,' insisting
O
on 1precision
and hard work. The play's real director quickly faded into the background.
(He literally fell off the stage when she lectured him at one rehearsal.) Dick
Ellis, later famous as fashion critic Mr. Blackwell, had a role as a court page
and remembered West as temperamental and cold. She grew impatient
quickly and berated cast members who made mistakes. For Ellis, it became "a
nightmare of hostility." During the entire time he was in the show, he met her
only once. He sent her a bouquet of white roses, and after he begged for weeks
for an appointment with the star, she granted him one in her dressing room.
Upon his arrival, West glared at the young actor. "I just wanted to know if you
received the flowers I sent," he said. The star turned and,' staring
7
o
at her reflec-
tion in the mirror, replied, "Yes, she did." Blackwell was then ushered out.
BRING ME R A B E L A I S 247
West's response left him spinning. Was this really Mae West? Was it "a slip of
the tongue?" Did she view herself as two distinct people?49
West's moodiness may have resulted from many factors. Certainly, she
maintained a deep identification with Catherine as her telegram to the New
York Times indicated. A member of the crew observed that in scenes requir-
ing Catherine to sign public documents, West inscribed her own name. In-
deed, she had long viewed her star persona "in the third person," as an entity
detached from her true self. Yet her outbursts and aloofness functioned as a
power play. West's return to the New York stage had proven a challenge.
While she may have succeeded in cowing the director, Michael Todd had a
much stronger personality and was dissatisfied with her depiction of the em-
press. West countered with royal-size temper tantrums. Her outbursts not
only kept Todd under her thumb but also compelled male cast members to
keep a respectful distance both offstage and onstage. It was an atmosphere befit-
ting an empress. This time her character was not just another Bowery maiden
but rather a royal ruler whose authority was total and without question.
But West was hardly antagonistic toward the entire troupe. She remem-
bered enjoying a clandestine affair with one cast member. Another player
was the son of an old friend, a tailor who had given
7
o
her a wardrobe when she
was still a struggling
oo o New York actress. Actor Gene Barry,
y' her leading
o man,'
remembered West fondly. During rehearsals, she told him not to call her
"Miss West." Barry asked, "What should I call you?" Mae replied, "Mmmm.
Just call me honey."50
Regardless of her varied relationships with the cast members, West's dis-
agreements with Todd became legendary. In later years, she insisted that Lee
Shubert described the flamboyant producer as "not too smart but he'll run
the legs off you." Before long, West banished him from rehearsals for cigar
smoking; later, she even quit speaking to him. Many contended that Todd
and West clashed over the nature of the production. Todd was said to object
to her conception of Catherine as a drama, demanding she play it as a comedy.
Reportedly, after the play's trial run and abysmal early reviews, he angrily
confronted her, cursing her in front of a cast member. He was forced by the
Shuberts to apologize. Nonetheless, many credited him with compelling
West to work a generous share of humor into the play.51
In reality, West had originally envisioned Catherine within her unique
genre of comedy-drama. As early as 1939, when she first discussed the pro-
ject publicly, she told a reporter that she would "play it on a high plane" but
assured him that it would "have plenty of laughs." Mae was conscious of her
talents as a comedian, aware her strength
7
O
rested in humor,* surmising, O'
"I
don't think my public would care for me straight."52
248 M A Ee* WEST
By April 1944, even before the play was cast, West had drafted Catherine
Was Great. It contained her classic mixture of humorous language play and se-
rious interludes. While she punched up the dialogue and gags after tryouts,
the final script ran close to the original. From the beginning, this play was a
paradox, both a historical drama and a rollicking burlesque. Todd, like many
others West had encountered in her long career, could not accept this hybrid-
ity: Plays were either comedies or dramas, and fusing such dichotomies ap-
peared nonsensical. Yet the root of Westian rebellion existed in the rupture
between extremes. Her Catherine would not only rule Russia but also create
total mayhem both on and off the stage. West used almost every tool of signi-
fication, including parody, satire, and pastiche, to empower her empress.
Todd was so sure it would flop that he returned money to a co-investor.53
When the curtain rose on the first act,7 the audience found itself sittingo
before Catherine's court, filled entirely with men moving about restlessly. A
group of senators and noblemen smugly speculate that Catherine, as a
woman, will be just a figurehead. Finally, amid much fanfare, Catherine re-
gally enters. As the court stands at attention, she skims legislation awaiting
O J ' O O
her signature. She denounces it as "the ruthless robbery of our peasants by

oppressive taxes" and refuses to sign. As the senators and noblemen fume,
she proceeds to more important business. Prince Potemkin, recently re-
turned from battle, informs the empress that her forces are triumphing
against the Turks, but he can only reveal details on the war in private.
Catherine is enthusiastic. "The Turkish situation interests me," she declares.
"Come to the Royal Suite and we shall talk Turkey." Potemkin meets the em-
press in her boudoir, telling her "I am yours to command." Catherine sizes
him up and responds, "I command you to attack." The lights darken, and a
flurry of boots and male clothing flies from her bed.54
Later, the scheming and power-hungry Count Mirovich informs Cather-
ine of a plot to install a pretender, Ivan VI, on the throne. When Catherine
realizes that Ivan, who has been locked away in a prison for his entire life, has
never seen a woman, she muses, "What a tragedy for a man, what an oppor-
tunity for a woman." She orders him brought to her castle and hidden in a se-
cret room adjacent to her royal bedchamber.55
She also faces a peasant uprising led by the rough but handsome and
charismatic Pugacheff. A case of boils has left him with hair on his chest
shaped like a cross, which peasants interpret as God's sign that Pugacheff is
destined to lead Russia. While Catherine announces her dedication to the
people, vowing to end "oppression and misrule," she remains determined
not to surrender authority. She disguises herself as a peasant woman, locates
the rebel leader, and seduces him with a song, "Strong, Solid, and Sensa-
' O O
BRING ME R A B E L A I S 249
tional." She then lures Pugacheff

o
to the Double Eagle
o
Inn,' where her royal
J
guardsmen capture him. Discovering that someone within her circle of ad-
visers has supplied weapons to his ragtag army, she executes his soldiers and
grills him on the traitor's name. Pugacheff refuses, but she spares him, send-
ing the burly revolutionary to the dungeon "to give him time to think of
what he will miss by being dead."56
While Catherine later reclines in bed, reading French author Francois Ra-
belais, Potemkin climbs through her window dodging gunshots from below.
He tells her that Mirovich has ordered her oguards to fire on him in an at-
tempt to stop their relationship. Catherine also learns that the count and his
aide, Dronsky, have located Ivan. Plotting to kill him, they intend to impli-
cate her in the murder. Catherine tricks Dronsky into drinking sedative-
laced wine, removes Ivan from his hiding place, and has the slumbering
conspirator placed in his bed. Mirovich steals in and, thinking his collabora-
tor is Ivan, stabs him to death.
Then Catherine has her hair done. As she preens, in preparation for a
palace reception in her honor, her guards arrive with Mirovich. She admon-
ishes him for using t his talents for evil
o rather than o
good. The count explains
r
that his disloyalty resulted from his belief that she "disliked" him. Catherine
assures him, "The man I don't like doesn't exist." She sends him off to be be-
headed and exits on the arm of Prince Potemkin, promising, "With my great
men, I shall do more and more and more"57
When Catherine Was Great arrived on Broadway in early August 1944, the-
ater critics were merciless. "Bawdy, distasteful, and repetitious," cried one.
"Forgettable," sniffed Life magazine. The New Yorker condemned her perfor-
mance as "baffling and rather pathetic," and the New York Times pleaded for
"more leer and less history." The Nation's Joseph Wood Krutch raged that he
had always found West confusing, uncertain whether she viewed her sexual
allure in jest. In his opinion, Catherine settled it. She was not joking. "Its
bawdiness is as deadly serious in intention as it is deadly dull in effect," he
concluded. Many predicted Catherine Was Great would bomb. The Daily
News's John Chapman remarked, "I'm afraid it will be a bust, which will give
Miss West one more than she needs."58
The critics were wrong. o
Manhattanites flocked to Catherine Was Great.
Well into its Broadway run, fans continued to pack the theater. Each time
West made an entrance, the audience broke into "show stopping ovations."
At the play's end, she made repeated curtain calls. After each performance
she thanked the audience and repeated, "Catherine was a great empress. She
also had three hundred lovers. I did the best I could in a couple of hours." It
brought the audience to its feet, and applause rang out long after the house
250 ae * west *
lights went up. "The West admirers are legion," observed one journalist.
Fans committed her lines to memory, and many imitated West's distinctive
royal command, shouting in a regal but sultry Brooklynese, "Entah!" In No-
vember,' stage
o
manager
o
Robert Downingo wrote a friend in Boston,' "We have
now given i 2o New York performances of'Catherine'—to everyone's as-
tonishment but the author's."59
Catherine Was Great provided fans with an opportunity to enjoy a little of
the old West, freer than she had been in years. Part of Catherine's popularity
with the public rested in her kinship to her successful prototype, Diamond
Lil. Critics immediately connected the two characters, one even asserting
that "Miss West's interpretation of the empress differs only in costuming
from Diamond Lil." West's vision of Catherine as a royal Lil rang through.
J O O
Mae claimed Catherine was, like the Bowery queen, "low in vivid sexuality,"
only exerting power "on a higher plane of authority." It became the most ef-
fective inversion of "Frankie and Johnny" since Diamond Lil. Catherine not
onlyJ could do men wrong, t>>
moving
o
through
o
a multitude of lovers,' she could
execute any or all of them at will. Catherine Was Great went beyond a tale of a
woman's reign of a country; it was a story of a woman's reign of terror.
Although West's more overt debts to black culture were less visible in
this piece, it remained tied to African-American signification. Rife with
paradoxes, Catherine Was Great offered a twoness, a double-voicedness, and
an array of mixed and conflicting messages. It was a comedy-drama montage
that fans cheered and critics sneered. Even the ogermination of Catherine.'
rooted in West's desire to play the Queen of Sheba, indicated that West's
empress was biracial in origin. Her delineation of Catherine served to swing
the audience between extremes, never resting in one place. In constant mo-
tion, the play oscillated between high drama and a parody of serious the-
atrics, with Mae West delivering royal dialogue in her seemingly ill-suited
7
O J O O J
working-class Brooklynese. For one writer, the most "cherished" line of the
play came when Empress Catherine drawled, "I remember the incident
puffeckly." With West's Catherine on the throne, the trickster ruled again.60
Indeed, Catherine Was Great revived West's dazzling tricksterism. The play
was timeless. Fraught with anachronisms, it undermined all potential for any
narrative certainty. Catherine Was Great blended past with present; the dia-
logue sounded stiffly courtly as well as loosely modern. When Mirovich of-
fers flowery praise for the empress's leadership skills, one guardsman
observes, "She turns the trick as neatly as you please." Characters bow, speak
formally, and click their heels. But it then turns bawdy and lewd. Posing as a
peasant
i
and admiringo Pugacheff's
o
dagger,
oo '
Catherine rests her hand on its
sheath and remarks,' "It is such a big
o
knife."
Catherine, the consummate trickster, is a purely paradoxical being. She is

the people's empress, yet she represses their leaders. She finds Potemkin's
worldliness alluring but is also drawn to the ethereal Ivan. She fights wars to
O O
extend her kingdom and spends hours inspecting her troops. Marching
down a line of soldiers, she stops, examines one, looks down below his belt,
and observes, "You're new here." Without hesitation, she orders executions
and a new coif at the same time. At one point in the play, she confuses the
seven deadly sins with the ten commandments. When her dresser corrects
her,' Catherine thunders,' "Are you
J
suggesting
oo o
I don't know the difference be-
tween right and wrong?" He apologizes profusely; she muses, "Well, some-
times I wonder myself."61
Some reviewers attributed Catherine's topsy-turvy nature to West's ama-
teurish writing, one commenting, "It doesn't seem that anyone over 2 i
would admit to having written such a play." However, others applauded the
raucous and contradictory essence of the piece. Her longtime admirer Stark
Young proclaimed her performance both "presentational" and "representa-
tional," evoking simultaneously the real and unreal. The dualistic nature of
Catherine Was Great was so apparent that a reviewer from the Christian Science
Monitor noted it as the most outstanding o feature of the piece.
r He observed
that the production's specially crafted curtain, bearing the double-eagle crest
of the Russian royal family, functioned as a metaphor for the play itself. "It
might well stand for other things besides the pageantry of Imperial Russia,"
this critic asserted. "It could, for instance, stand for double entendre." But he
also insisted that "the heraldic fowl could just as well represent, though, the
strange double effect of the whole affair."62
These writers had stumbled into the trickster's hall of mirrors and dou-
bled images.
o
Exaggerated
oo
and erased,' real and reflected, these images
7
o
im-
parted a multitude of possibilities. Was Catherine an expose of the
frightening consequences of dictatorial rule so prevalent in the minds of
wartime Americans? Or was it a plea for firm leadership over the masses
who could be so easily deceived? Catherine provides no right or wrong an-
swer but reveals that all positions are absurd. Both the leaders and the masses
are misguided; neither can be trusted. This chaotic world is made even cra-
zier by Catherine, the trickster, who lives in lavish comfort, plotting her
conquests of foreign lands, seducing young officers, and then sending her
men off to slaughter. "What do you think I have an army for?" she asks a
member of her court. "Don't answer that."63
It is not surprising that West's Catherine, who also reads Voltaire, chooses
Rabelais to take to bed. The spirit of the sixteenth-century French writer
captured the essence of West's play. While it is doubtful that she actually read
252 * MAE * WEST
much Rabelais, she certainly was familiar with the French author, famous for
his bawdy satire. In the past, several reviewers had described her as "Ra-
belaisian." West always carefully checked out such references. And in Ra-
belais, she found someone who resonated with both her experiences and
style. Rabelais's work was controversial; he too not only generated debate
but also suffered censorship. His lusty political and social farces, centering
on the saga of two giant kings, Gargantua and Pantagruel, also paralleled her
work. Rabelais laced his novels with every possible comedic device ranging
from simple puns to lengthy parodies. As literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin
argues, Rabelais's humor was intrinsically subversive: "No dogma, no au-
thoritarianism, no narrow-minded seriousness can co-exist with Rabelaisian
images. These images are opposed to all that is finished and polished, to all
pomposity, to every ready-made solution in the sphere of thought and world
outlook." Bakhtin's appraisal of Rabelais could have applied to Mae West.64
West's work had long contained similarities to Rabelais's rowdy style, and
with Catherine Was Great—the giant queen—the resemblance became even
sharper. Her kinship with African-American signification made Rabelais a nat-
ural bedfellow for Catherine. One of the many devices employed by West and
Rabelais is parody, a double-voicedness, used not only to mock but also to
wrest control from those in power. Catherine speechifies on the horrors of
war and deplores the waste of young Russian men as she continues to dispatch
them to the front. At the same time, she leeringly announces, "Russia needs
her men. I need them. I cannot spare a single one more than is necessary."65
Yet another Rabelaisian quality spins within Catherine Was Great. Bakhtin
links Rabelais's novels to the tradition of carnival, contending that such public
festivals serve as a forum for ordinary people to resist those who control
them. Through inversion of convention and by defying social norms, these in-
terludes function not only as safety valves but also as rowdy challenges to au-
thority. Similarly, African-American signification often harbors an element of
carnival, its rejection of white dominance operating within similar societal
ruptures. Not surprisingly, West's creation, laden with signification, assumed
a parallel function. In Catherine, she created a carnival of nonsense and rowdy
fun, featuring a house of mirrors. Spectators at Mae West plays, who often
stomped, cheered, and applauded, reveled in a moment of rebellion, as the
trickster seized power by exposing the madness of those in control.
With Catherine.' Mae resuscitated the genuine
o
and untainted Mae West,' the
modern-day trickster hero. Masked, she puts down an eighteenth-century peas-
ant revolt with modern song; she dupes Mirovich, her most dangerous enemy,
into murdering Dronsky, his most faithful ally. From the first moment she ap-
peared on the stage, West declared victory in the battle between genders. As
the curtain rose, senators, royal counselors, soldiers, aristocrats, and ambas-
sadors bustled about preparing for Catherine's arrival. When a page an-
nounced her entrance, a hush fell over this mob of men. One journalist
described the scene:
The tension is terrific, the suspense unbearable; you can't wait an-
other second, it seems. And then, in somber majesty, not to mention
fourteen yards of brocade, appears the Great Catherine. . . . She ap-
proaches the center of the stage (amid thunderous applause). She
stops and surveys the flunkies, guards, councillors, etc. with a special
survey of the audience. And then she smirks. It is a sensation.66
Truly, Catherine was a sensation. After thirty-four weeks in New York

City, West took Catherine Was Great on the road. In several cities throughout
the East and Midwest, it received overwhelming audience support. Yet de-
spite Catherine's positive reception, in May 194^ she closed the show. The
hot summer would make the heavy costumes unbearable. While she may
have intended to take Catherine out again in the fall, the world was already in
flux. That spring the Allies defeated Germany, and in August Japan surren-
dered. The ensuingo Cold War,' the standoff between the United States and
the Soviet Union, made it clear: Catherine was great, but with its sympathetic
treatment of a Russian leader and her devotion to the masses, it would never
67
be seen onstage
o
again.
o
E * L * E * V * E * N
A Glittering Facsimile
She ogives her public

i what it wants: a glittering
o o facsimile of
what it craves and, through laughter, a means of keeping itself
free of what it fears. She horses around with sex so that we
can have our cake and not eat it.
— New Republic, February 2 i , 1949
ven though the Cold War had dethroned Catherine Was Great, it was
E not long before Mae West was drawn back to the stage. In January
1946, Jim Timony negotiated for the Shuberts to back West's
newest play, a spy story called Come On Up. It was a simple, low-
budget piece, confined to a single set. The action took place over a span of a
few hours and required no costume changes for supporting characters, al-
though West's "wardrobe would, of course, be extravagant. For the cast, she
O ' ' O '
looked to unknown actors and actresses, paying them, on average, eighty

dollars a week. It was not a huge salary, but working with Mae West was a
great opportunity for a young player trying to break into the big time.1
Come On Up centered on Carliss Dale, an undercover FBI agent who poses
as an entertainer to gain entrance into international circles. At the play's be-
ginning, Carliss flees Mexico City after being implicated in the murder of a
Nazi sympathizer. She arrives in Washington, D.C., and seeks refuge in an
apartment owned by her fiance, the wealthy Jeff Bentley, who, like everyone
else,' is ignorant
o
of Carliss's true vocation. Carliss remains secluded in his
high-rise suite while he works to clear her name.
Accustomed to excitement, Carliss quickly grows restless. Bentley's maid
decides to alleviate Carliss's boredom by releasing balloons bearing the mes-
sage
o "Come on up r and see Carliss." Over the next few hours,' Carliss receives
surprise visits from two sailors, a cab driver, an astronomy professor, a gang-
ster, a senator, a general, and a South American former beau. When Krafft, a
254
A GLITTERING FACSIMILE 255
Nazi spy, shows up, she adeptly fells him with one blow. Bentley discovers
Krafft tied up in a closet, and Carliss reveals she is an undercover FBI opera-
tive. "Some time I'll show you my badge," she promises. Postponing her wed-
ding, she departs with her South American friend to take care of "a little
unfinished business."2
West declared Come On Up a departure from her preferred genre of comedy-
drama, claiming she played it purely for laughs. At first glance, the play lacked
the characteristic depth of her mature work. With its assortment of suitors, all
immediately smitten by Carliss, it clearly drew from The Ruby Ring. Addition-
ally, Mae used it to recycle a variety of her most popular Westianisms, borrow-
ing lines from work spanning Diamond Lil to My Little Chickadee, with her
trademark "come up" echoing throughout the play.
It is likely that West, responding to the times, backed away from her sub-
versive critiques of American society. While Carliss betrays and fools men,
her motivation is less the desire to avenge the woman wronged and more a
sense of duty to her country. Come On Up was unembarrassedly patriotic, an
affirmation of West's allegiance to the red, white, and blue. Carliss hunts
down Nazis and their allies, protecting her country from threats to democ-
racy and freedom. She even entertains two sailors, remarking, "At least you
can't say I'm not patriotic."3
West was riding on the wave of nationalism that had swept the country
during and just after World War II. But other forces, no doubt, inspired her
sudden surge of nationalistic pride. With the war's end and the decay of the
U.S.—U.S.S.R. alliance into a hostile standoff, anti-Soviet and anti-Commu-
nist sentiments flourished in the United States. The postwar years led Amer-
icans into a period of conservatism and conformity. Communism and
socialism, long suspect, were branded eminent threats; deviant or rebellious
behavior was considered un-American. Several politicians targeted Holly-
wood; Congressman John Rankin, the vocal leader of the House Committee
on Un-American Activities (HUAC), declared the film colony potentially
"the greatest hotbed of subversive activities in the United States." Such shifts
O
in the national mood certainly affected West's performance; she had always
been a little deviant, subversive, and very class-conscious.4
West composed Come On Up in this climate of growing fear and apprehen-
sion. Although initially Congress's investigation of Hollywood proceeded
slowly, conservative politicians continued to cast aspersions on the loyalty of
Tinsel Town. Catherine Was Great, which had benefited from the United
States' wartime alliance with the Soviets, became a potential liability to
West during peacetime. The decline in her film career made West less of a
concern to politicians gunning for Hollywood notables, yet West—who had
256 * MAE * WEST
uncompromisingly faced down the New York City Police Department, the
legal system of her home state, society's moral guardians, and even film cen-
sors—took special care to ensure she would not be red-baited.
No doubt, West worried she could be targeted as a fellow traveler as the
' O
atmosphere of fear gripped the nation. Later, comedian Milton Berle re-
membered that in the 19208 West had sent President Warren G. Harding a
letter of congratulations for freeing socialist Eugene Debs from jail. Addi-
O O O J
tionally, she had been one of the founding members of the Screen Actors
Guild, a union heavily scrutinized by Communist-hunting politicians. Her-
alded in lean times as a proletarian heroine, during the war she had chosen
to depict herself as the people's empress of Russia. Although she had ob-
scured her political opinions, her work carried on a dialogue over class divi-
sions and conflict. Suspicious and conformist Cold War America interpreted
cultural products more rigidly than ever before. As a good trickster, West
realized that she had to shift her work. In this hostile climate, she needed to
play with the conservative attitudes of the era.5
In Come On Up's early drafts, West revealed her preoccupation with the
Cold War mood. When Russian revolutionary Stanislaus Kovacs comes up
to see her, Carliss denounces his ravings as "an infection known as commu-
' O
nism—a very virulent disease that is affecting the minds of even some intel-
ligent people nowadays." "I expect you to sneer at the philosophy of
collectivism," the revolutionary announces. "For you it is not the Brother-
hood of Man." Carliss entangles him in his own words. "I can go along with
O O O
the idea of Brotherhood of Man very nicely—even with enthusiasm," re-

sponds Carliss, "but not your way, brother."6
Yet, as in the past, West's work contained subtextual meanings that chal-
lenged
o some of the play's
r j overridingo themes. On the one hand,' she distances
her character from her working-class
o
roots;' Carliss is a member of the elite.
The Los Angeles Times noted West's transformation, observing, "She's fending
off the boys with fancy words loaded with laughs." Yet she did not pass up
the chance for at least one shot at wealth and privilege. Reverting to an ear-
lier strategy, she deflected class commentary into other characters, particu-
larly using the role of Irish-American cabbie Mike Harrigan, whom she had
initially intended to call "Red." Described as "Brooklynese," a male counter-
part to Mae's popular image, he is tough-talking and openly disparages the
rich. He mistakes Carliss for a prostitute, and when she rebuffs his advances,
he retorts, "I can see you're just after the big stuff. I'm just 'little people.' "
While Harrigan's response is far from revolutionary, he stands as Carliss's al-
ter ego, interrogating her position as one of the elite.
West even slipped in a challenge to her whiteness. When the astronomy
professor reports that the constellation Hercules has bypassed the planet
Venus for the star cluster Cassiopeia, Carliss asks, "What's Cassie got that
Venus hasn't?" The professor, gazing at Carliss, responds, "Cassiopeia is un-
usually attractive this time of year." Clearly, West was attempting to link
Cassiopeia, named for an Ethiopian queen, with her character—yet another
subtle attempt to connect with fictional blackness.7
Come On Up even further challenged the notion of a fixed identity. A trick-
ster, Carliss appears both mutable and immutable. As with Carliss's proto-
types in The Ruby Ring and The Hussy, each man views her differently.
Harrigan thinks she is a lady of the evening, Bentley sees her as a society
woman, and the gangster believes she is a sharpie. Carliss could be all of
these things; she is a spy, and her occupation rests on duping those who sur-
round her into misreading her identity. At the same time, however, and un-
like her predecessors in The Ruby Ring and The Hussy, Carliss does nothing to
assume a new persona but remains the same throughout, functioning as a
mirror that permits men to see what they desire. She leaves the work to the
male imagination and allows their mind power to create her many masks.
Come On Up premiered on May 16, 1946, for a short engagement in Long
Beach, California, then, for nine months, played stands around the country
that ran as short as one nightto
and as long as two
to
weeks. It was a ogruelingo
tour, especially for the cast and crew. It meant long train rides through the
night, a seemingly endless stream of small towns, tiny theaters, and second-
rate hotels. Several members of the troupe, including the company manager,
did not make it through the entire tour. West, who turned fifty-three that
summer, quickly replaced dropouts and continued on the road.
Those cast members who traveled with Come On Up were divided in their
opinions about Mae West. Some looked upon her with admiration; others
resented her overbearing work ethic. To almost all, she appeared an enigma;
everyone maintained a respectful distance from her. The Sri accompanied
her on the tour and led her in a series of chants and meditations before per-
formances. One cast member, Harry Gibson, who played a sailor, inter-
preted her relationship with the Sri as more sexual than spiritual. Given the
paradoxical nature of Mae's views, it was probably both. For her, sex and re-
ligion were not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Gibson also claimed to have enjoyed a brief affair with West. (While many
third parties testified that she was as libertine as rumored, few of her lovers
came forward publicly.) He maintained he was only admitted to her hotel
room late at night when no one was around. Interestingly, his impressions of
the intimate Mae West were similar to Harry Richman's: Sex with West was
distinctly impersonal; she was curiously detached. Gibson remarked that
when it came to lovemaking, "Mae West didn't need anybody"; men were
258 * MAE * WEST
only incidental to her pleasure. She demanded that he replicate the scripted
moves of her cinematic lovers. Odd as it was, it revealed West's obsession
with sex and power. Every interaction was a public performance, and each
performance of sex was a battle between the genders. There was also sport in
conquering
I O
men. Her affair with Gibson was calculated to have an unsettlingO
effect on him. It also revealed that even in the most intimate moments, West
always remained in control, independent, and very much alone.
It was this independence, drilled into her during her formative years by
Tillie, that drove West to trek on. Come On Up took her throughout the
country, as Gibson observed, to "every one-horse whistle-stop in the middle
of no place." While the tour was much easier on her than it was for the rest
of the company—she had first-rate accommodations—it was still a long,
hard road. Not since her vaudeville days had West played so many short
stints throughout the American heartland. For some it was puzzling. Why
would a performer of her wealth and stature undertake such a demanding
tour on the small-time theater circuit? Gibson believed that West longed for
O
"the old days, the glamour," that she was desperately clinging to her heyday.8
While West optimistically believed that Come On Up would boost her sag-
ging career, she had never sold herself cheaply, and in 1946 she was hardly a
failure. Catherine Was Great had proved that she still had a following. Come On
Up helped to keep her career alive, but it also fulfilled a very fundamental
need in the Westian psyche. Since childhood, she had needed to perform,
and she had spent most of her fifty-three years onstage; it was, by her own
admission, the place where she was most alive. It was safe and secure, always
scripted and with no need for spiritualists or mediums to forewarn of pitfalls
and surprises. "This was live theater show business as I liked it," she wrote.
"And it liked me."9
Beyond the certainty of performing, Come On Up allowed West to affirm
her allegiance not only to America but also to Americans. Despite the shifts
in her image, Mae still saw herself as the people's star. While other film
celebrities sat snugly in their Hollywood mansions enjoying the life of cine-
matic aristocrats, Mae went to the fans, in person. In small towns across
America, she shook hands with local leaders who greeted her at depots; she
accepted keys to their burgs as they showered her with bouquets of flowers.
Fans packed theaters for her show. After taking her bows, she reemerged
from behind the curtains, graciously meeting the audience and forever oblig-
ing the fans with autographs. For many in Middle America, it not only of-
fered them a glimpse of a celebrity but also allowed them to meet a real star.
In early February 1947, Come On Up returned to Los Angeles and opened
at the Biltmore Theater. West had high hopes. The first night was a sellout,
and for two consecutive weeks she filled the theater. But the reviews, as they
had been on the road, were mixed. The Los Angeles Times's Edwin Shallert,
while conceding that Come On Up was "packed with laughs," rated the play
overall as not "too good." A Variety reviewer who had caught the show in
Oakland, California, declared that West had reverted "to the style of drama
that once sent her to the workhouse" and predicted that Come On Up would
never make it to Broadway.10
He was right.
O
Come On UpI
never did see the lights
O
of the Great White
Way. While it had done respectable business, its nine months of short hops
suggested that it could not sustain a Broadway run. One source claimed that
J. J. Shubert, after sitting through one of the play's final performances, im-
mediately canceled its scheduled New York City dates; a trade publication
said that the Shuberts had "decided discretion was the better part of valor."1'
Another opportunity soon presented itself. In May, Jim Timony announced
that West would take Diamond Lil on tour in Great Britain. That summer, she
hired two leading men and decided to cast the rest of the play in London to cut
costs. In September, she journeyed by train to New York City and, fearful of
flying, boarded the Queen Mary with Jim Timony, her two leading men, and
seven large steamer trunks filled with costumes, clothes, and jewels.
She left just in time. Only a few weeks after she departed the country, the
HUAC commenced a public investigation of purported Communist infiltra-
tion of Hollywood. It divided the film colony; some supported HUAC's
probe, and others openly opposed its oppressive tactics and the threat to First
Amendment rights. Some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Lucille Ball,
Gary Cooper, and Ronald Reagan, and many screenwriters, directors, and
studio executives were called to testify. The committee failed to uncover any
movieland Communist conspiracy, but those who were suspected of leftist
sympathies or who refused to testify found themselves blacklisted, leaving
their careers in shambles. Although West's status in Hollywood was marginal,
by being out of the country, coincidentally and perhaps conveniently, she
avoided entanglement in this deeply divisive controversy.
On the other side of the Atlantic, West received a hearty welcome; al-
though British authorities had heavily censored her films, she was popular
among movie fans there. When her ship docked at two o'clock in the morn-
ing, the press was on hand to greet her. She did not disappoint them, telling re-
porters, "I want every man in England to come up and see me." A crowd of
customs agents, longshoremen, ship stewards, and cab drivers surrounded her,
and she patiently signed autographs before departing for her London hotel.12
West assembled and rehearsed the Diamond Lil cast quickly, then set out
on tour. She opened in Manchester and played cities and towns throughout
26o MAE * WEST
England and Scotland, where she was warmly received. Millionaire Eli Pear-
son threw her an extravagant party, rumored to be one of the most expensive
affairs ever staged in British society. The Dunlop company, manufacturer of
the Royal Air Force's "Mae West" life preservers, honored her with a cere-
mony at their factory. Examining one of the life vests, she commented to on-
lookers, "Yes, I see the resemblance." At the ceremony's end, she circulated
one of the evening's programs for each factory worker to sign as a souvenir
for her to take home.13
In January 1948, she returned to London and opened at the Prince of
Wales Theatre. She was an immediate hit. Fans mobbed the theater and
treated her to standing ovations. Diamond Lil's appeal cut across the rigid
class structure of British society, drawing royals, including queen-to-be Eliz-
abeth (reportedly a fan), celebrities, and performers, as well as everyday
people. While some British critics praised Diamond Lil, several condemned
it, labeling it "vulgar,""crude,""tawdry," and "shoddy." One even denounced
it as a "fifteen-minute vaudeville act padded out to two hours." Their disap-
proval did little to impede West's popularity. Diamond Lil was in such de-
mand that West had to schedule two performances a day.14
By May 1948, British audiences began to peter out, and West returned to
the United States, exhausted but renewed. She announced her return to
films that summer and her intention to open a new play the following win-
ter. Yet both projects evaporated. Instead, she appeared in Los Angeles
County Court. Michael Kane and Edwin O'Brien, two writers hired in 1938
by Jim Timony to work on a Catherine script, had slapped her with a
$ 100,000 plagiarism suit.
When the case came to trial at the end of August, West made the most of
it. Each day, with Timony by her side, she appeared in striking apparel. For
the first court session, she selected a white dress suit with a white scarf
draped over her blond locks. For jury selection, she chose a red, white, and
blue sailor dress accessorized by a yachting cap. During testimony requiring
her to recite lines from Catherine Was Great, she appeared in black satin with
longo black ogloves and a large
to
black-and-white tricornered hat. At the end of
one session, twenty-five Cub Scouts burst into the courtroom and swarmed
around the star, begging for her autograph. She signed away, inscribing her
photos, which she happened to have on hand, with "When you turn twenty-
one, come up and see me sometime."
The trial stretched on for almost two months, during which Los Angeles
was hit with record-breaking heat and unrelenting smog. Undeterred, fans
to to to '
often packed the courtroom or waited outside to see the famous star. They
were not disappointed. Henry T. Moore, attorney for Kane and O'Brien,
A GLITTERING FACSIMILE 26l
called West as his first witness. Moore asserted that she had not written the
play and, beyond that, did not even understand some of it. "This French is
what?" demanded the lawyer, referring to one line. "It's a matter of a sort of
suggestive remark," West replied, examining the script through a bejeweled
lorgnette. She referred the attorney to Larry Lee, her secretary since the late
19208, for an explanation. "What does it mean?" Moore snapped at her. She
only repeated, "It's a sort of suggestive remark." The attorney hammered
away on historical detail, demonstrating that West did not even know what
century Catherine the Great lived in. He pushed her to recite the litany of
Catherine's lovers in chronological order. "I can't remember of 300 men
which one came in order," she snapped back. "Neither can you. No woman
could." Laughter filled the courtroom.15
A parade of witnesses passed. Timony admitted he had hired Kane and
O'Brien, but only as research assistants. He pointed out that their script was
incomplete; it was missing a third act. O'Brien testified that he was unable
to make duplicates of the final scenes because he had run out of carbon pa-
per.
r Moore fought o on,' highlighting
o o o similarities between his clients' script
r
and West's Catherine Was Great. West's attorney insisted that she had been
working on her script since 1933. Finally, on October 4, with a mound of
evidence entered into the record, the case went to the jury. Four days later,
they announced a deadlock seven to five in West's favor. The judge declared
a mistrial. Mae declared a victory.16
At fifty-five, Mae appeared vigorous, but by the end of the trial, Timony,
who was sixty-four, was visibly ill. Each day during the litigation, he re-
mained faithfully by Mae's side in the sweltering Los Angeles heat. In his
spare time, he was negotiating for her return to the American stage. By fall,
he had rounded up two backers, Albert H. Rosen and Herbert J. Freezer,
and sold them on the idea of reviving Diamond Lil in the United States. West
knew Rosen fairly well; he was a veteran vaudeville theater manager. In re-
cent years, with Freezer's help, he had purchased a small playhouse in Mont-
clair, New Jersey, a perfect place to tryout Diamond Lil. In early October
1948, West departed for New York to recruit and rehearse new cast mem-
bers. Timony, growing weaker, reluctantly remained behind in Los Angeles.
Refusing to see a physician, he began dabbling in a new project, looking into
business prospects in the growing desert town of Las Vegas.
Once in New York, West launched into preparing the play. She altered
the script slightly, deleting a few old lines in favor of some of her films' most
memorable dialogue, including "Goodness, what diamonds." Retaining her
o ' O ' O
trademark "Frankie and Johnny," she added some new songs, among them
"Come Up and See Me Sometime" and "A Good Man's Hard to Find." She of-
262 MAE * WEST
fered cast members small salaries, relying on second-string performers. Old

friends filled out the cast. For Gus Jordon, she selected Walter Petrie, who
had played Bearcat Delaney in The Constant Sinner. She insisted that Rosen
hire Billy Van and Jack Howard, two of the members of the original 1928
cast. Rosen recruited one of his friends, pianist David Lapin, to accompany
West duringto her musical numbers.17
On November 29, 1948, Diamond Lil made her comeback in Rosen's Mont-
clair playhouse. The crowd filled the theater to capacity; many fans and critics
had journeyed from New York City to catch the return of the Bowery's most
famous diva. From the minute Lil first swayed into Gus Jordon's Suicide Hall
until her final "You can be had," the audience applauded and cheered. At the
play's close, Mae received a standing ovation, making repeated curtain calls as
the audience clapped, whistled, and shouted for more.18
Diamond Lil was back. West continued to play to sellout crowds for three
weeks, breakingO all of Montclair's box office records. She then moved on to an
7
equally successful run in Philadelphia, and by mid-January she was playing

packed houses in Baltimore. She had a full calendar, with bookings in Toronto,
Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse before heading back to Broadway, where
Rosen had secured the Coronet Theater for Diamond Li/'s homecoming. o
But West's plans were abruptly cut short. On January i^, 1949, return-
ing to her Baltimore hotel after an evening performance, she began to expe-
rience familiar abdominal pains. They grew so intense that her staff rushed
her to a local hospital. Doctors declared her condition serious, speculating
that she was suffering from either an obstruction or an inflamed appendix.
They strongly recommended exploratory surgery. Mae stubbornly refused.
Despite their pleas, she would not even consider it; ignoring doctors' warn-
ings, she signed herself out of the hospital. Although she protested, Rosen
canceled the rest of the Baltimore run as well as several other bookings.
o
West and company returned to New York. She claimed she summoned
the Sri who again
to healed her. Yet cast members noted that she continued un-
der a doctor's care; a physician was always available in the wings. After a
brief rest, Mae determinedly forged ahead. On February £, Diamond Lil cele-
brated her Manhattan homecoming. As in Montclair, Philadelphia, and Balti-
more, opening night was a sellout. Mae claimed that this was the most
memorable of all of her premieres. At her first entrance, the audience
jumped to their feet and gave her a five-minute standing ovation. Life ob-
served that New York had not seen such an outpouring since the grand dame
of international theater Sarah Bernhardt made her farewell performance al-
most forty years before. On successive nights, Manhattanites continued to
pack the theater, showering Mae with cheers and applause. It remained, ac-
cording to most, a stunning spectacle, climaxed with West's rendition of

"Frankie and Johnny" in her arresting scarlet gown.19
Even most critics were happy to have Lil back. While one who had seen
the original maintained that Diamond Lil was "as feeble as it was in the first
place" and another declared it "the silliest and most dilapidated play ever
written," all agreed West's performance was sheer genius. The New York
Times rhapsodized, "The snaky walk, the torso wriggle, the stealthy eyes, the
frozen smile, the flat, condescending voice, the queenly gestures—these are
studies in slow motion, and they have to be seen to be believed." Noting that
the playbill proclaimed that "Miss West has long been acclaimed one of the
greatest show-women of all time," reviewer Gilbert Gabriel remarked,
"Without any impolite accent on the 'long,' I'll say Amen to that."20
Only a few performances into its Broadway run, Diamond Lil had sold out
weeks in advance and was playing to standing room only crowds. What had
started as a limited engagement now appeared ready for a long stay. To pro-
mote her homecoming, West agreed to appear on television on Saturday,
February 26. She played a matinee that day, rushed back to her hotel, and,
while changing, slipped on a bathroom rug and fell. X-rays revealed that she
had fractured her ankle. Surgery was unavoidable, and Mae found herself
wearing a cast. Clearly, Diamond Lil had to be postponed. Rosen refunded the
advance tickets and assured the public that Mae West would be back soon.
West's ankle healed slowly. In May, after doctors removed her cast, Rosen
immediately announced her return. But Mae demanded more time for recu-
peration, and in June, much to Rosen's frustration, she left New York City
with her new lover, David Lapin, to convalesce in Los Angeles. She joked
about her mishap, reaffirming her carefully cultivated image by denying that
she had broken her ankle stumbling over a pile of men.
Even though the bathroom rug may have caused her injury, her recent
medical history indicated a downturn in her health. It is possible that she was
sufferingo from stress and exhaustion,' not to mention the effects of wearing o
a
corset again. However, it is also likely that Mae's health problems may have
resulted from unstable blood sugar
o
levels,' for she was later diagnosed
o
as dia-
betic. Of course, any public admission of illness was impossible. Mae West's
image had to remain invincible and resilient. As she recuperated, Life praised
her as "an American symbol, as beloved and indestructible as Donald Duck."
Again
O
and again,
O
Diamond Li7's return was put1
off. Rosen Ogrew anxious.
West's comeback was in jeopardy of losing momentum, not to mention large
box office receipts. A New York Times reporter interviewing her at the
Ravenswood observed that she could stand only for short periods and used a
cane to walk. Mae insisted that it was impossible to resume her role, that her
264 M A E * WEST
performance required full mobility. She compared herself to a dancer whose

delivery depended on "movement of her feet and the well-known motion of
her hips."21
Some have asserted that West was purposefully stalling. Stanley Mus-
grove, later West's publicist and biographer, believed that Lapin held her
back. He was domineering and had developed an antagonistic relationship
with the rest of the company, including Rosen. But at this point in her life, it
seems unlikely that West would have sacrificed her wants for any man. (And
it was not long before she dumped Lapin.) While she was probably still on
the mend, she was also toying with another opportunity. That year, film di-
rector Billy Wilder offered her a starring role in a comedy called Sunset
Boulevard. She would play Norma Desmond, a silent film star who takes on a
young lover and makes a victorious comeback on the modern screen. Even-
tually, West turned the part down: She refused to play an aging actress and
likely realized retooling the part was impossible. Mary Pickford declined the
role as well. Finally, Gloria Swanson accepted it, and Wilder transformed
the film into a drama with Desmond as a tragic and delusional star, spiraling
downward and murdering her young lover.22
Instead, in midsummer, with her ankle healed, West took Diamond Lil to
the annual theater festival in the small, historic mountain town of Central
City, Colorado. As the event's featured play, Diamond Lil became an instant
smash. Demand for tickets was so great that it was held over for almost a
O
month. After a brief, lucrative stopover in Detroit, Diamond Lil returned to

New York on September 6 as popular as ever. Advance tickets again sold out
and each night West received standing ovations. Police were always on hand
to control the mobs lining up outside the stage door hoping to see her leav-
ing the theater. Her nightly departure was a performance in itself. In full
stage makeup and attired in her finest furs, gowns, and jewelry, West
emerged from the stage door into the throng, greeting the crowd as she
climbed into her limousine. As her driver slowly drove out of the alley, she
cracked the limousine window, shook hands, signed autographs, and chatted
with fans. Then, after the crowd dispersed, she would return, take off her
makeup and gown, slip into slacks, and head to her hotel.
In January 19^0, West took Diamond Lil on the road. Throughout the
country, fans mobbed her, tickets for the play usually sold out, and audiences
cheered her return. But the trip was not without its problems. On February
16, in Rochester, as she finished the second act, she collapsed onstage. Her
physician, waiting in the wings, whisked her off to her hotel room. A publi-
cist attributed her sudden illness to food poisoning at first but later an-
nounced that West was suffering from "sheer exhaustion." Determined that
the show must Ogo on,' she returned the next evening: O'
her doctor assured the
press that she was in sound health. Despite her reported exhaustion, the
cross-country tour continued.23
In Kansas City, Owney Madden, who had been exiled by the FBI to Hot
Springs, Arkansas, slipped in to see Diamond Lil and reminisce about old
times. Again,
O '
after each performance,
1 '
she mingled
O
with the audience, Ogreet-
ing the fans and signing autographs. An opinion poll in 1949 ranked Mae
West along o
with Eleanor Roosevelt as "the best known women in the world."
West credited her success and fame to the people who had stood loyally by
her. Sounding much more like her earliest self, she professed, "I'm for the
masses and the masses are, it seems, all for Diamond Lil."24
She also understood that they had played an important role in her trans-
formation into an icon. Increasingly she was recognized as a "national institu-
tion"; critics described her as a "historical American phenomenon" and an
"international legend." Absorbing their reflections into her star persona, Dia-
mond Lil's playbill proclaimed, "Miss West as Diamond Lil is as important a
part of the American scene, the American way of life as is the rolling plains,
the towering skyscrapers, the hot dog, and the atomic bomb." Beyond her
links to Americana, she had become a symbol herself. According to John
Mason Brown, "More than being a person or an institution, she has entered
the language and taken her place in the underworld of the present's mythol-
ogy." For the public, Mae West was no longer just a star. She had evolved into
a signifier, both an agent and a symbol that communicated its own meanings,
and she embraced the public acknowledgment of her status. She realized,
even with some trepidation, that the public had intertwined Lil with Mae
West and that her appeal rested in the fantasy's genuineness. "Diamond Lil
and I are getting to be pretty inseparable," she told a reporter. "It even gets to
be a little frightening, this constant association with a single part. But it is
what Diamond Lil's public wants and who am I to keep it from them?"25
Throughout 19^0 and into 1951, West continued to tour, with occasional
breaks, with Diamond Lil. Wherever she appeared, the fans turned out. Crit-
ics marveled over the unusual hold that Mae West had on the public. Dia-
mond Lil brought out not only old-timers but also young people, most of
whom had never seen either her plays or her films. By 19^0, an entire gener-
ation of Americans had grown up knowing who Mae West was, able to recite
her witticisms,' and familiar with what she signified,
o '
but few had seen the
original Mae West in action. Banned by the Hays Office, She Done Him Wrong
and I'm No Angel remained locked in a Paramount vault. Despite censors' at-
tempts to combat West's pernicious influence, Diamond Lil's legend persisted
and Mae West endured.
266 MAE * WEST
What started as a Diamond Lil revival soon became a Mae West renais-
sance. In 1949, Sheridan House, hoping to cash in on her renewed popularity,
reissued her two novels, Diamond Lil and The Constant Sinner. Decca Records
released a two-volume set of her songs. After more than twelve years of ex-
ile, radio lifted its ban, and in early 19^0 West returned not once but twice to
guest-star on The Chesterfield Supper Club, hosted by Perry Como. In a plug for
the sponsor, when asked about Chesterfields, she replied, "Well, I'd say,
Chesterfields are um, Um, UM." She also played Little Red Riding Hood, on
her way to Grandma's house, merrily singing "Frankie and Johnny" and the fa-
mous blues tune "How Come You Do Me Like You Do."26
Attempting to ride the wave of West's renewed popularity, Paramount
petitioned the Hays Office to allow the rerelease of She Done Him Wrong and
I'm No Angel. Their request was flatly denied; Joe Breen warned, "No good
will accrue to the industry among the right-thinking people with a release of
a Mae West picture." While contemporary critics found it laughable that
West had been considered so controversial, in the censors' view she re-
mained extremely dangerous. Instead, the studio rereleased two milder ve-
hicles, Belle of the Nineties and Coin'to Town.27
It is not surprising that Mae West and Diamond Lil enjoyed a renaissance
in the late 19405 and early 19^05. As in the 19208, many observers attrib-
uted her appeal
rr to nostalgia,
o ' but this time theatergoers
to were longing
o o not for
the gay nineties but rather for the roaring twenties. One reviewer described
Lil as "a taste of the twenties" and a product of prosperity and Prohibition,
denying she had anything to do with the i 8903. Diamond Lil held court in
the bawdy and sudsy atmosphere of Gus Jordon's saloon, calling forth the
rowdiness of a simpler time, before depression, a second world war, and
atomic bombs.
In the Saturday Review, John Mason Brown reported that although Ameri-
cans "were supposed to be tougher now," Diamond Lil withstood the march of
time. In a sense, her message in 19^0 was as relevant as it had been in 192 8. Lil
returned to reflect the ambiguities
to
of the times. She embraced but interro-
gated the material, caught in an eternal struggle between her diamonds and
her soul. Lil advocates living life to its fullest "because when you're dead,
you're dead. That's the end of it." She insists to Cummings, "I only know I'm
here right
&
now,' and I'm ogoingo
to &get all the fun out of life I can." Lil's lust for
the here and now seemed particularly timely in a senseless and unstable world
where the clash of political ideologies and the threat of atomic annihilation
made life seem precarious. But Diamond Lil, always certain and secure, always
a winner and never a loser, shone as the hedonist who forgot about the past,
conquered the present, and had no worries for the future. Lil, the American
trickster, spoke across eras. "Only the Statue of Liberty has been carrying a
torch for a longer time than Mae West," Brown wrote. "She, moreover, seems
no more fatigued by maintaining her chosen attitude than does the iron lady
down the bay with her eternally uplifted hand."28
Grounded in signification, Diamond Lil continued to allow spectators to
decipher the performance to suit their needs. Reviewers' varied interpreta-
tions indicated Lil's lasting indeterminacy. The debate raged again: Was
West )joking? o
"Miss West has never asked to be taken seriously," 7
J
surmised
Brown. "If she is the high priestess of desire, she is also its most unabashed
and hilarious parodist." But the New York Times's Brooks Atkinson was less
certain, puzzled over Diamond Lil's "world of sex" with "very little sex in it."
He demanded to know,' "Is Miss West serious or is she kidding?" o
Lil's and
Mae's allure was both real and symbolic; as a good trickster, she was both
and neither, occupying the ether between extremes.29
Diamond Lil's (and Mae West's) successful perpetuation of female trans-
gressiveness may have been one of her most attractive qualities for post—World
War II female fans. During the war, American women had answered the coun-
try's call by taking on traditionally masculine roles, such as filling in for men in
factories and volunteering for military service. After the conflict ended,
American society reverted to traditional notions of female domesticity. To
preserve jobs for men, postwar society bombarded women with messages en-
couraging
o o
them to return to homemakingo and child rearing. o
Throughout
o
American culture a backlash against the working woman appeared, epitomized
by 19^08 television sitcoms that depicted suburban mothers fretting over their
children, fussing over their husbands, and worrying about the next family
meal. In the midst of this revival of the cult of domesticity, Mae West, the sig-
nifier, offered an alternative and a challenge. She blazed on as a symbol of inde-
pendent
1
womanhood, doingo battle with the male gender
7
O
each night
O
onstage.
O
She refused to be a mother or wife, makingO it clear that the kind of cookingO she
7
was interested in did not happen in the kitchen.

How did West get away with such insubordination in the middle of a cul-
ture driven by conformity? She continued to rely on humorous indirection
and contradictory messages. Lil was independent and sexually liberated but
remained focused on men and their desires. Beyond this, Mae West was in-
creasingly perceived of by many, and was beginning to assert herself, as a
caricature. Always larger than life, she now appeared more exaggerated than
ever. In part, this derived from real changes in her physique. Size-wise she
was ever more robust and the severe theatrical makeup transformed her into
a Super Diamond Lil. "Always and proudly an armful, Miss West is a bigger
girl today than she used to be," remarked Brown. "But what devotee of the
2 6 8 M A E * W E S T
madame could object to there being more of her?" West's humor and
overdetermined physical presence made her supercharged sexuality appear
30
less threatening,
o7 less real.
In November 19^1, when ticket sales began to dwindle, West made a fi-
nal appearance in New York City and closed Diamond Lil. When she re-
turned to Los Angeles, she found that Timony had declined even further. He
had been hospitalized in 19^0 for heart failure and continued to suffer com-
plications, yet he had remained her greatest champion. Despite his weak-
ened state, he had begun planning a Las Vegas hotel and casino called "Mae
West's Diamond Lil Casino and Restaurant." Additionally, he cheered Mae
on as she began work on a new play that she called Sextette. The plot seemed
particularly suited to her; it revolved around a recently married movie star
who had to juggle five ex-husbands.
Unable to find a suitable venue for Sextette, West spent the summer of
19^2 playing Come On Up with stock companies across the nation. She re-
turned to Los Angeles in September and shortly afterward purchased a
Santa Monica beach house designed by architect Richard Neutra. Mae dec-
orated it in a traditional Westian style—white carpets, white and gold fur-
niture, mirrors everywhere, a multitude of portraits of herself, and frescoes
of male nudes adorning the walls. In one room, little monkeys, replace-
ments for the long-lost Boogey, swung on small jungle-gym bars. For her
bedroom,' she purchased l
a large round
o
bed to ogo beneath a mirrored ceiling
o
surrounded by cupids. Hoping that the sea breezes would prove healthful to
the ailing Timony, she claimed she invited him to stay at the beach house.
West insisted that as Timony declined, she could not leave him. He con-
tinued with his casino plans but was too incapacitated to oversee the now ex-
tensive Westian financial holdings. To complicate matters, the San Fernando
Valley was in the midst of a housing boom, and as a primary property holder
in that area, West stood to make a considerable amount of money. She con-
sulted with her cousin Henry Doelger, the Northern California builder and
developer. Slowly and shrewdly, she began to parcel off lots and sell them,
increasingo her fortune even more.31
It would seem logical that West would next attempt to break into the
world of television. She had participated in almost every form of twentieth-
century mass entertainment, and television was quickly supplanting film,
theater, and radio as the nation's preferred diversion. While West's spicy
reputation ran counter to the conservative trends of the TV networks, pro-
ducers nonetheless began to approach her with ideas for the small screen.
She rejected them all until, in 195^3, her old friend William Le Baron pro-
posed a series called It's Not History, It's Her story. The show would feature
West playing famous historical figures, including Catherine the Great,

Priscilla Alden, Marie Antoinette, Mme. Pompadour, Delilah, Cleopatra,
and Pocahontas. When a Los Angeles Times reporter expressed skepticism that
Mae could be toned down for television, both West and Le Baron insisted
they "would make no effort to be on the sexy side." But later, Le Baron
promised that West's material would be "real adult fare."
Overall, West's comments sounded more like those of the scholars of
women and gender almost a generation later. She complained to Theatre Arts
magazine that men rather than women had written history, distorting
women's contributions to the past. She declared her television series would
present a woman's perspective, an important corrective to history. "These
pictures will not be written from the man's point of view," she explained.
"They aren't history. They are a woman's story." While this series was in-
tended to be humorous, at one level, West again was attempting to subvert
patriarchal society.
The Los Angeles Times reporter, like several others, also sought West's
opinion on the newest crop of sex symbols. She announced, "Marilyn Mon-
roes may come and Marilyn Monroes will go, but Mae West will always be
the standard by which they judge sex." Mae not only had absorbed her role as
a symbol but also was in the process of promoting it, encouraging the public
to read her as a signifier of sex. "All the new personalities coming up in the
movies try to be sexy," she observed. "They turn themselves inside out striv-
ing for recognition. Me, I don't have to do a thing to be called sexy except
stand up."32
While Le Baron and West worked on Herstory, Timony, as much as possi-
ble, pursued his dream of building his desert tribute to Diamond Lil. But both
projects quickly folded. West's much publicized entrance into television was
shelved. And on April £, 19^4, Jim Timony, a few months short of his seven-
tieth birthday, died of a heart attack, ending all plans for West's resort hotel.
The New York Times eulogized him as the man responsible for transforming
West "from a relatively obscure singer and dancer into an internationally
known prototype of the American siren." Mae West, and now Jim Timony in
death, had both been completely overshadowed by Diamond Lil.33
As a fitting tribute to Timony, West did not give up completely on Las
Vegas. The casinos were busily recruiting many of Hollywood's stars for
floor shows in their nightclubs. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis
Jr., Danny Thomas, and even Marlene Dietrich all played Vegas. Mae de-
cided to follow the pack. She visited the desert town, toured various casinos,
and signed with the Sahara to appear at $2^,000 a week. It was an unheard-
of amount for Vegas. Now all she needed was an act.
270 M A E * WEST
West's muse came in the form of a muscleman. One afternoon, she received
a call from an acquaintance, bodybuilder George Eiferman. Learning from him
that the recently crowned Mr. America of 19^4, Richard DuBois, wanted to
meet her, she invited the men to the Ravenswood. Eiferman, DuBois, and
ten other bodybuilders rushed over to her apartment. "There were only a
dozen," she wrote, "but the room looked crowded." It was decided—the Las
Vegas act would include a generous proportion of musclemen.34
As she assembled the act, she personally interviewed most of the nation's
top bodybuilders, finally selecting a group of nine, including DuBois, Eifer-
man, and a quiet thirty-one-year-old former Mr. California, Chuck Krauser.
She also recruited a male chorus line and convinced her old friend Louise
Beavers, who had just finished starring as a maid in the TV series Beulah, to
join the act.
To promote her Las Vegas opening, West did a series of interviews.
Hedda Hopper was one of the first and innocently asked, "You had Gary
Grant too, didn't you?""Twice, dear," was Mae's response. "Had him twice."
When a Parade reporter showed up unexpectedly early and laden down with
camera equipment, he found West entertaining a group of society women.
He claimed that Mae, much to her guests' surprise, commanded, "Take your
equipment and get into the bedroom." Mae bragged to another interviewer
that everyone read double meaning into whatever she said. At a Denver ho-
tel, when struggling with two large trunks, she shocked the bell captain by
demanding, "I want a boy—a big boy."35
The publicity made way not only for the famous sex signifier but also for
West's subversive language play. The act was full of linguistic games. In many
ways, it functioned as a review of her career, drawing from her vaudeville
routines, films, personal appearance tours, and plays. Running almost forty
minutes, it opened with male dancers in tuxedos performing a tribute to the
legend of Mae West. As they finished, she made a grand entrance, corseted
and gowned a la Diamond Lil and singing "I Like to Do All Day What I Do
All Night."
o
Attended byJ her black maid,' Beulah,' West offered a string o
of
quips, some old, a few new, but most from a chaise lounge at center stage.
When the phone rang, Beulah answered, "Miss West's suite." "Don't brag,"
Mae called out. "Just tell 'em I'm in." Beulah announces that four hundred
men await her in the lobby and asks if they should be sent away. Mae, gazing
into a mirror, remarks, "Don't be silly. There's enough for everybody."
Beavers exited and West prepared for the act's central feature, a muscle-
man contest. The nine bodybuilders, each representing a different nation,
filed out wearing large white capes. They encircled Mae, reclining languidly
on her chaise lounge, and on cue dropped their capes, revealing that they
A GLITTERING FACSIMILE 2j I
were clad only in skimpy white loincloths. Then each paraded before her as
she remarked on their various "attributes.""! feel like a million tonight," she
O *
murmured. "But one at a time." After banteringO with each muscleman, she 7
declared a winner. It was always Mr. America.

The contest over, Beulah reappeared solo, professing admiration for Dia-
mond Lil and a desire to be just like her. Then she introduced the finale: Mae
West reemerged, delivered a monologue taken from Diamond Lil. and closed
O ' O '
with "Frankie and Johnny."36

When West opened her act at the Sahara's Congo Room in July 19^4, it
was an immediate sensation. Her engagement, which lasted almost three
weeks, topped all of the Sahara's attendance records. She was invited back
for the winter holiday season and secured bookings in the best nightclubs
J O O
around the country, including Chicago's Chez Paree and New York's Latin
Quarter. Her New York engagement also broke records. It beat out The Pa-
>- O O
jama Game as the city's hottest show and was held over for seven weeks.
West's muscleman act proved she remained a cunning social critic. With
it she produced her most blatant objectification of men, a total inversion of
gender expectations. As the musclemen marched onstage, she announced,
"I've Ogot somethingO for the O
girls—boys, J '
boys,
J '
boys."
J
As women had been
scrutinized in beauty contests, a practice she had criticized in the 19205 with
The Wicked Age, she now scrutinized men. Mae's musclemen existed only for
the pleasure of the female spectator, encouraged to project herself into the
Westian image. Mae had long understood the function of spectacle that
scholars had only theorized about. "You'd be surprised how people sit there
and think that's themselves up there," she remarked about audiences. She saw
herself as a signifier for women and of womanhood, contending, "I'm the
woman's ego, see." West's work compelled women to assume a male atti-
tude, looking upon the exploited male body as an object to be possessed and
dominated. In a traditional Westian dualism, the muscleman act both chal-
lenged and reinforced the presentation of gender in entertainment.37
Like West, the musclemen appeared as giant caricatures; she had picked
them for their exaggerated physiques. Anxiously competing for Mae's ap-
proval, they reinforced the transformed Westian presence. As an older
woman and more than ever perceived as a burlesque of womanhood, she
could no longer enhance her image and desirability with men in tuxedos, a
trick dating back to her Harry Richman days. Now, to emphasize her allure
and undermine male domination, she selected men with bulging muscles
' O O
whose masculinity was as exaggerated as her femininity.

With the muscleman act, she completely merged Diamond Lil with Mae
West. No longer attempting to draw any lines, she became Mae West playing
272 M A E * W E S T *
Mae West unmediated by any third party or fictional character. Fans saw
Mae West—who was Diamond Lil of course—in her boudoir with her
trusted maid, entertaining a host of men. It was such an intimate blending of
star and character that George Eiferman observed, "Of course, everything
was done tongue-in-cheek, but Mae always played herself."38
Although the public was willing to accept the blending onstage, it still
seemed reluctant to embrace a sixty-one-year-old woman as desirable and
sexual. While the Mae West of the 19^08 certainly appeared to be physically
fit and remarkably strong, it became harder to appear "ageless." Columnist
Earl Wilson visited her backstage in New York City and reported that when
he quizzed West about her age, she looked "hurt." She continued to pro-
nounce faith in mind power. "If you take care of your health and you're inter-
ested in positive thinking, you'll be okay," she told him. Yet he persisted,
contendingO that a discussion of her ageO
was a catchyJ angle
O
for his article. She
finally retorted, "Honey, why don't you just say, 'Good to the last drop.' "39
West's difficulty with aging resulted from her philosophy of power and
gender relations. For her, the female body remained a woman's most potent
weapon in the struggle between the sexes. In an effort to maintain that
power as she aged, she had stopped denying links to her characters and re-
constructed herself into an openly sexual older woman. She now tried to ig-
nore age, replicating the Diamond Lil from days of yore, but creating the
illusion became harder and harder. The signifier depended on the visual, and
that image was shifting. West began maintaining that she was remarkably un-
changed, relying on the idea that it is not what you see but how you see it.
Sometimes this approach worked. Some persisted in reading West as both
enduringly tantalizing and rebellious. In 19^6, a British journalist declared her
superior to all contemporary sex goddesses, including Marilyn Monroe, Jane
Russell, and Ava Gardner. "Ingenues, all of them and almost as antiseptic as the
Esquire pin-ups,"he wrote, praising West as "every inch a woman." Variety cele-
brated her sustained allure as well as her contradictory nature. Their reviewer
observed that she "bares nothing, yet reveals everything." Equally supportive
was Ebony magazine, the African-American community's counterpart to Life. It
offered up earnest praise for West and co-star Louise Beavers. Ebony ap-
plauded the two for resisting the age discrimination that denied older women
their sensuality, declaring that "the sexiest, most-talked-about and one of the
highest
o paid
r acts this season . . . was a hilarious team of two grandma-aged
o o
show-women both nearing 60." Beavers assisted in perpetuating the illusory
Mae West, telling Ebony, "Mae has always been a pal to me. She hasn't changed
a bit in looks or personality since that first day I met her."40
Ebony's appraisal of West was high. It described her relationship with

Beavers as "one of the strongest friendships in show business." It also ob-
scured the line between reality and fantasy, contending that the "Las Vegas
Act symbolizes [the] friendship of [the two] actresses." While it lamented
that Beavers was onstage only six minutes during the act, it cited trade pa-
pers' praise for her contribution.
Although Beavers's role was limited, she was clearly an important ele-
ment of West's act. Her character represented a summation of Mae's earlier
and contradictory messages on race. As was typical for the Westian maids,
Beavers's character, Beulah, served her mistress with devotion. She answered
the phone and assisted Mae onstage. But, as Ebony observed, the banter be-
tween the two characters revealed that she also functioned as Mae West's
"confidante." Most important, Beavers introduced the act's finale while
imagining herself as Diamond Lil. This fantasy within a fantasy affirmed Dia-
mond Lil's racial elasticity, suggesting that a black woman could project her-
self into the role just as readily as a white woman. It also was a covert
reminder that Lil's roots were in black culture: She arose from the black
character that preceded her. There was Mae West, one more time, singing
and playing out "Frankie and Johnny."41
During the mid-fifties West alternated between touring with the muscle-
man act and with Come On Up. And her personal life took an upswing. As
tour manager, she hired a former lover, wrestler Vincent Lopez. But Lopez
proved to be every bit as possessive as Jim Timony; he threatened all the
men in the act, warning them away from Mae. According to Eiferman,
Richard DuBois, often West's escort, was angered by Lopez and eventually
left the show. Soon another contender emerged, O7 Chuck Krauser. He waited
for a hiatus in Los Angeles and, after Lopez departed, sought Mae out at the
beach house and professed his love. She was impressed: He was not only "the
strong silent type" but had remarkable patience. By the summer of 19^5, the
two had become inseparable, and Krauser moved into Timony's old bed-
room in the Ravenswood. West always preferred to sleep alone. "I require a
full-size bed so that I can lie in the middle of it and extend my arms spread
eagle
o
on both sides without their beingo obstructed,"' she revealed.42
Krauser, whose real name was Chester Ribonsky, was a former navy man,
merchant marine, and wrestler who had worked his way up the bodybuilder
circuit. He was as loyally devoted as Jim Timony, but unlike Timony, Deiro,
and even Frank Wallace, he made no attempts to manipulate or control her.
Those who knew him remarked on his kindness and indulgence. He was no
show business wheeler-dealer, but he was attuned to health and fitness and
274 M A E * W E S T
made sure that Mae followed a healthy regime. He not only appeared in pub-
lic at her side but carefully protected and defended her in every way.
Krauser's protective nature generated some controversial publicity when
the muscleman tour went east in late spring 19^6. George Eiferman had re-
cruited the current Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay, to join the show. West's
requirements for those appearing in the act were strict; it was all work, and
the musclemen were required to eat properly, work out, and rest between
performances. The cast was prohibited any romances on the road. It was es-
sential that the men in the act follow this rule,' for their behavior offstage
o
had
an impact on West's star and fictive personas. In the blur of fantasy and real-
ity, the bodybuilders who lusted after Mae West onstage desired her offstage
as well. Although West had settled into a monogamous relationship with
Krauser, the musclemen played a critical role in perpetrating her signified
reputation as wanton and irresistible.
Hargitay defied this image in a fundamental way. He not only ignored
West's prohibition of road-tour love affairs but violated it with, from her
perspective, the most offensive of all choices. When the muscleman act
reached New York City, he commenced a very public affair with actress
Jayne Mansfield, even allowing himself to be photographed as she was being
crowned Brooklyn's Blossom Queen. West reprimanded Hargitay, but he
defiantly refused to end the affair. Angered by his insolence, she demoted
him in the muscleman lineup. Mansfield's comments only inflamed the mat-
ter. "I've been always told to respect my elders," she remarked. "She's sixty-
four, and if I look that good at sixty-four, I'll have no problems whatever."43
For West, Jayne Mansfield was particularly troubling. Like Marilyn Mon-
roe, Mansfield was proclaimed a sex symbol. But West was rankled not so
much by Mansfield's remarkable beauty as by her eagerness, unlike Monroe
or Russell, to promote herself as a sex symbol. West viewed that title as ex-
clusively hers and regarded anyone else who claimed such a status as an in-
terloper. West lashed out at Mansfield, accusing the actress of stealing her
image. Later, in an anonymous letter to Louella Parsons, West declared
Mansfield "a phoney in all departments." At least one critic reviewing Mans-
field's appearance in The George Raft Story agreed, describing her perfor-
mance as "a higho
school Mae West."44
When the muscleman tour reached Washington, D.C., in June 19^6, West
called a press conference in her dressing room. According to Hargitay, she in-
vited him to announce that he had ended his affair with Mansfield. Other
sources indicated that West had intended to publicize changes in her lineup.
Regardless, Hargitay showed up, telling reporters that he was being forced
out because "he was no longer o
in Miss West's favor." As the accusations flew,'
A GLITTERING FACSIMILE 2J$
voices grew louder. Within moments, Krauser had flattened Hargitay with a
punch. West used the scandal to her advantage. What could better demon-
strate her continued allure than two musclemen fightingo o
over her?45
West also weathered another controversy. She found herself the target of
Hollywood Confidential, one of Tinsel Town's most scandalous magazines. By
the early fifties, the studios' power had declined, and stars could no longer
rely on the protection provided by studio publicity departments and their
cozy relationships with the media. Hollywood Confidential exploited the situa-
tion. Using call girls, the stars' neighbors and enemies, private detectives,
phone taps, and other sources, they collected career-threatening informa-
tion about Hollywood celebrities. Then the magazine sought payoffs to sup-
press its stories.
Apparently, West refused to be blackmailed. In November 1955, Holly-
wood Confidential ran a tell-all story entitled "Mae West's Open Door Policy"
that featured a picture of Chalky Wright superimposed over her out-
stretched arms and also linked her to boxer William Jones. The article chor-
tled that her "favorite color combination" was black and white and asserted
that West had showered Wright with elaborate gifts, purchased a house for
his mother, and financed his divorce. A subhead declared, "Chalky Wright
came up to see Mae and stayed for a year."46
Publicly, West remained mum on the allegations. It was not unusual for
stars to ignore Hollywood Confidential, for public denouncements only at-
tracted more attention to the stories. But for Mae, the situation was even
more complex, for the story cut to the core of her ambiguities about race and
identity, linking her celebrity persona with the interracial love affairs that her
fictional self had often flirted with in her fantasized world of stage o
and screen.
Althougho
West remained silent,
'
other celebrities, growing
' o o
wearyJ
of Con-
fidential's threats, tried to fight with lawsuits. Their efforts failed. Confiden-
tial's operations were spread across three states, making it impossible to
prosecute the publishers. However, in the spring of 19^7, the State of Cali-
fornia took up the cause and charged Hollywood Confidential with criminal li-
bel and the publication of obscene material. While the stars who had first
taken action supported the state's case, others were less enthusiastic, fear-
ing that a public trial would reveal damaging personal information. Their
anxiety was not unfounded. When the case came to trial, attorneys repre-
senting Hollywood Research, Hollywood Confidential^ information-gather-
ing agency, filed a witness list of over one hundred film celebrities. The
defense insisted that they could prove their stories true if the stars and their
friends were compelled to testify. On that list were Mae West and, report-
edly, Chalky Wright.
276 * MAE * WEST
Hollywood Confidential'sstrial began in early August 19^7 and was marked

by twists and turns, embarrassing revelations, and scandalous testimony. One
former prostitute testified about an affair with Desi Arnaz, star of the popular
/ Love Lucy and husband of Lucille Ball. Francesca de Scaffa, reportedly an ac-
tress, testified that she had seduced Clark Gable just to get a story for the
magazine. Most of the stars on the witness list, all subject to be called with
only a two-hour notice, waited with apprehension. Several weeks into the
open sessions, film industry representatives pleaded with the state to call off
the trial. The Los Angeles district attorney snapped back, "Hollywood does
not control justice in this state." When African-American cowboy star Her-
bert Jeffries appeared outside the courthouse, he summed up the perform-
ers' dilemma, telling reporters, "I don't know what side I'm supposed to be
on. I'm down here to find out." West avoided testifying by supplying sworn
depositions that she claimed proved Confidential's story about her was false.47
Chalky Wright, who had signed a sworn statement refuting the rumors
regarding
o o his affair with West,' was not there to back her up.
I Wright,
to ' who
had retired from the ring in 1948 and was working in a bakery, had left his
wife and moved in with his mother. On August i 2, just as the Hollywood Con-
fidential trial got under way, she found him dead in her bathtub. The LAPD
immediately declared it an accidental drowning, postulating he had slipped
and hit his head while bathing. o
West intimated he had been murdered.48
At the beginning of October, Hollywood Confidential's case went to the jury.
But jurors found themselves hopelessly deadlocked. Rather than retry the
long and complicated case that threatened to drag Hollywood's aristocracy
through more mud, the state made a deal with Hollywood Confidential. In ex-
change for a $£,ooo fine and a promise to suspend publication of scandalous
stories, the state agreed to drop charges against Hollywood Research.49
The scandal did little to impede West, and she continued to tour with ei-
ther the muscleman act or Come On Up. In March 19^8, she appeared on the
televised Academy Awards show, singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock
Hudson. Critics raved that it was the evening's highlight; the New York Times
commented, "Mae West and Rock Hudson stole this interlude, if not the en-
tire show, with their suggestive singing." Additionally, with the assistance of
author Stephen Longstreet, she began composing her autobiography. It was
not surprising that at this juncture she elected to chronicle her past. Many
celebrities from Hollywood's golden age, including Groucho Marx and Billie
Burke, were writing autobiographies. Although West struggled to keep her
image before the public through live performances, a memoir would reach
many more people and keep her fresh in the American imagination. She en-
titled it Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It.50
West's book was not really an autobiography but rather a biography of a

star named Mae West, a public persona that had evolved out of a fictional
character (which had evolved out of a real person). Even Mae admitted that
it was a tale of an invented heroine who always triumphed and never suffered
failure. She told one acquaintance that her fans did not want to read about
hard times, that they expected a story of successes and victories. Goodness
Had Nothing to Do with It became a story of a woman who struggled for and
against an identity and was finally compelled to embrace one.
The book, like most of Mae's work, was filled with conflicting messages,
subtextually signifying some of the real West. She admitted her birth date
was August 17, 1893, but claimed an image of agelessness, contending that
her health consciousness—no drinking and smoking, proper sleep, a fat-free
diet, exercise, and rubbing her breasts with cocoa butter—had enabled her
to look and stay youthful. She transformed Tillie into a Bavarian heir to the
Doelger Brewing fortune and her father (whose mother, she claimed, had
three breasts) into a successful private eye and livery stable owner, a descen-
dant of the elite Copleys of Boston. She countered the images of a privileged
background with tales of gang brawls and her father desperately scooping up
money thrown at her feet by appreciative audiences in her early days.
Throughout, West signified her link to her fictional character. Her life
story cemented the star persona to Diamond Lil like nothing before. The au-
tobiography served as a reference point from which the public could read
Mae West, her work, and her world. (In later years, she often refused to an-
swer interviewers' questions and simply referred them to her autobiography.)
Her affirmation of her legendary sexual prowess was the most critical ele-
ment in this final merging. Recapping an amazingly long list of lovers, she dis-
cussed each paramour's attributes. Those still alive or who had been married
remained anonymous. Mr. D (Deiro) was passionately obsessed with her; Mr.
X (Lapin) was characterized as "charming" and "sensitive." Timony was loy-
ally fixated until the end. Most of her young and strong musclemen lusted af-
ter her, which in part, she asserted, caused the problems with Hargitay. With
"Dinjo," whom she sneaked around with behind Timony's back during Plea-
sure Man rehearsals, she enjoyed intimacies "in dressing rooms, hallways, cars,
backstage alone, dark, dusty, in an emptied theatre; even in a self-service ele-
vator." Ted, a young boxer who had a part in the 1929 Chicago run of Dia-
51
mond Lil.' made love to her for fifteen hours straight.
o
West confirmed that she was every bit as licentious as rumored. Even this
carried multiple implications. Her confessions indicated deep ambivalence.
One reviewer did conclude that she was "nothingo but vivid flesh and torrid
blood enhanced by candor, narcissism, experience, brains, independence,
278 MAE * WEST
and a healthy bank account." But others came away with a different impres-
sion, noting her sterile descriptions of sex and her lovers. It may have been
the most personal subtext of the book, revealing West's ongoing ambiguity
about intimacy and men. The New Statesman's Maurice Richardson remarked
that she boasted of an "insatiable appetite for men, yet you never feel that she
gets much pleasure out of any of her innumerable affairs."52
When it came to the rumored affair with Chalky Wright, West also of-
fered mixed messages. As an affirmation of her whiteness, she adamantly de-
nied that Wright had been her lover and portrayed Hollywood Confidential as a
scurrilous publication. But interestingly, at the conclusion of her strident re-
pudiation of Confidential^ assertions about her interracial affairs, she added:
I did not change my way of life. I had harmed no one. I had a philosophy,
an idea of how to live fully and in my way. I believed in it as fully and as
strongly
O J
as I believed in beingO an American.53
It was a mysterious statement, seemingly unrelated to the Wright scandal.

On the surface, it appeared to be an overall defense of her sexually liberated
lifestyle, but it also reversed her preceding denial of interracial mixing. Con-
cludingo her discussion of Wright,
o '
it emerged
o
as a covert admission that she
had crossed the color line.
West's treatment of Hollywood Confidential's rumors reveals her continued
turmoil over the issue of race. Throughout her adult creative life, she had
carefully negotiated between white racism and her own intimate cultural
and personal affiliation with the African-American community. Like the rest
of her work, her autobiography affirmed and challenged her whiteness. She
credited Bert Williams, the blues, The Elite No. i, and the shimmy as major
inspirations for her performance style. But at the same time, she never once
mentioned African-American friends and associates and even oglossed over
The Constant Sinner. As a fantasy, West's life story, which was in reality closely
intertwined with issues of race, erased race.
West's autobiography was written during a time when race relations were
in a flux. In 19^4, in Brown v. Board oj Education, the Supreme Court man-
dated the desegregation of public schools, a major victory for civil rights ad-
vocates. In 19^6, the Montgomery bus boycott, led by Martin Luther King
Jr., ultimately compelled the Court to outlaw segregation in public trans-
portation. In many ways, it was a time of hope and promise, a more support-
ive environment for West to take an open stand against racism.
But she did not. In fact, her actions often seemed more in step with con-
servative white racial attitudes. When the muscleman act played the rigidly
segregated
O O
Las Vegas,
O '
Beavers and later her replacement,
I '
black actress Billie
Hay ward, found that they were excluded from the local hotels and casinos.
For Beavers, West rented accommodations in the African-American section
of West Las Vegas. One troupe member claimed that West angered Beavers
by sending her dresser to warn the African-American actress away from a
friendship with one of the white male dancers, fearing it would hurt the act's
chances in the desert city.
Yet such a dictate seemed inconsistent for a woman who had written and
starred in The Constant Sinner, fought to get Duke Ellington for Belle of the
Nineties,' and defied the studio byJ lunchingO alone with Louis Armstrong.O
Per-
haps her decline in power had forced her to become more wary, but she did
publicly confront Las Vegas's white segregationist policies when Billie Hay-
ward was injured in an automobile accident just outside the city limits; West
demanded Hayward be taken to and treated at the nearest hospital, a whites-
only facility.54
What held West back from becoming a vocal supporter for African-
American equality? Perhaps it was pure opportunism: She may have feared,
for whatever reason, that an openly anti-racist stance would hurt her career.
On the surface, she appeared to be oblivious to the changes in race relations.
The era's heightened attention to racial issues may have forced her into a
more conservative mode, for the civil rights
7
O
movement faced a backlash of
vicious, violent, and sometimes deadly white racism. The racist atmosphere
affirmed the frightening Westian fictional world where Money Johnson lost
his life for his relationship with a white woman. West's speculation that
Chalky Wright's death was murder may have been more than an attempt to
cast aspersions on Hollywood Confidential. It may have indicated that fears of
racist retaliation weighed heavily on her mind, that she, like Babe Gordon,
had sacrificed a lover to protect her reputation. West really was "the con-
stant sinner," defying the color line behind white society's back while up-
holding it in the open.
This internal conflict manifested itself in her autobiography. In many
ways, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It served as a reification traditional
American values. West's self-portrait of scrappy determination and indepen-
dence validated the American myth of success. Through hard work, self-re-
liance, and individualism, she had achieved wealth and fame. Additionally,
she reinforced an image of sentimental patriotism. She mourned the fighting
boys who had lost their lives in World War I as well as decrying Adolph
Hitler and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
A metaphor for the autobiography itself, the book jacket that concealed
the pink binding of Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It showed West sur-
2 8 0 M A E * W E S T
rounded by mirrors and reclining in her famous Ravenswood bed, admiring

her own reflection. West's life story was a mirror reflecting Cold War
America, in turmoil over societal divisions and struggling
7
oo o
with its own iden-
tity. In a broader sense, it mirrored the images of those who peered into its
pages. The trickster reflected back insecurities and fears, creating more
chaos as she affirmed American society's assumptions and values.
The autobiography sold well, and before long a paperback version hit
stores. To promote the book, in the fall of 19^9 West agreed to appear on
CBS's Person to Person, an interview show hosted by Charles Collingwood. On
October 4, Collingwood showed up to film at the Ravenswood. When he
questioned her about international relations, a timely Cold War topic, she
quipped, "I've always had a weakness for foreign affairs." She then escorted him
into her famous bedroom. When Collingwood inquired about the numerous
mirrors above her bed, she explained, "They're for personal observation. I al-
ways like to know how I'm doing." But only hours before it was to air, network
executives canceled the Mae West segment. A CBS spokesperson explained
that they "felt that certain portions of the interview with Mae West might be
misconstrued." When journalists sought her reaction to the cancellation, she
professed shock. "The program showed my bedroom and bed and I was stand-
ing by it," she mused. "But I did wear a very sedate, dignified gown."55
West had better luck with her next appearance — on the Dean Martin
show. The networks kept close watch on the prime-time variety shows,
forcing her to work from an approved script. When she made her entrance,
surrounded by a group of men, the orchestra blared a bawdy version of
"Frankie and Johnny." As Martin stammered, she identified her escorts as
"the cub scout patrol, uh, they're working on their merit badges." The audi-
ence roared with laughter as she fired off a round of Westianisms. When
O
Martin prepared to duet with her on "I Can't Give You Anything but Love,"
he asked, "Are you ready?" She drawled, "Always."56
West's appearance was so successful that she scored a booking on come-
dian Red Skelton's show. Before she signed on, she made her appearance
conditional on script approval and convinced the show's producer to allow
her to insert her own dialogue. Finding her first script too risque, the pro-
ducer steered her through a rewrite to appease network censors. The show
finally aired on March i, 1960. In a mock interview about her book, she was
introduced as the "woman who is an American Institution." She cautioned
the interviewer to "use discretion, I understand the censor has a weak heart,"
and then slipped in probably one of the bawdiest comments to be heard on
early television. When asked to describe men in her life who were offbeat,
she replied, "Well, a smart girl never beats off any man."
A GLITTERING FACSIMILE 28l
The show closed with West delivering o

a song,
7
o
"It's So Nice to Have a Man
Around the House." But she became noticeably uncomfortable when Skelton
inquired about the popularity of "Come up and see me sometime." Stumbling
over her lines, she explained its fame derived from Diamond Lil: "Of course it
was the way she said it and what she did when she said it that made it so fa-
mous." She had let a whole new generation, the savvy television generation of
the 19608, in on her secret, the power of signification—her trademark line
echoing the black presence that had made her work so powerful.57
* T * W * E * L * V * E
/ Had Them All
Announcer: But you never let one man worry your slumbers.
You believed in the saying "There's safety in numbers."
Mae West: I was big-hearted.
o I had them all.
—Mae West, Masquers Tribute, April 14, 1973
est's initial experiences with television left her dissatisfied.
W "I'm not too crazy about the TV scene because it places

too many restrictions on my type of material," she wrote. "I
don't like being censored, I don't think I deserve it." She
had invitations to return to motion pictures, but her insistence on complete
control shut down those possibilities. After being idle for almost a year, in
the spring of 1961, West prepared for another comeback in the theater.
While she was no longer a motion picture star, she could still play one on-
stage.
o
She dugo out Sextette and reworked it for a national summer tour.1
West planned to premiere Sextette in early July at Chicago's Edgewater
Beach Playhouse. She had written in a muscleman part for Chuck Krauser
(renamed Paul Novak after the Hargitay scandal) and recruited Edith Head
to design her gowns. But the production got off to a weak start. On a limited
budget, she had to forgo understudies and could only afford one week of re-
hearsals. On opening night, July 4, 1961, Mae came down with laryngitis
and had to postpone Sextette's debut. The production finally opened on July
7, with a prompter in the wings noisily feeding the cast their lines. The next
day, during the evening's first performance, West's leading man, Alan Mar-
shall, began complaining of severe back and chest pains. The second show
was canceled, and he retreated to his hotel room. The following morning, he
was discovered there, dead of a heart attack. With no one to fill in for Mar-
shall, the next night the show's producer delivered the part himself, reading
directly from the script. It took several days before West rounded up an-
other actor to assume the role.
282
I HAD T H E M ALL 283
West remembered her audiences as understanding, &' but the critics were
not so supportive. Variety rated the production poor. The Chicago Daily Tri-
bune, while praising "the overpowering Walk, the eyes under long eyelashes
which can light
& up r a stage,
& 7 the smile almost a sneer,' and the solid mechanical
punch lines, given out with hand on hip, eyes cast heavenward, and the old
burlesque bump," nonetheless panned the play. The Edgewater's ticket sales
dropped to an all-time low. West remained undaunted; she began reworking
the script and trouped on to dates in the Midwest. By the time she opened at
Miami's Coconut Grove in mid-August, o '
Sextette was runningo in fine form.
When she made her entrance on opening T o
night,
o '
the audience ogave her a long
o
and hearty standing ovation. The Miami Sun declared Sexette a little "shock-
ing" but "hilarious" and cheered West's endurance: "Age hasn't changed the
picture one particle. Mae West is the best portrayer of a sexpot this reviewer
has ever seen." West took out a full-page ad in Variety and ran a paste-up of
Sextette's positive reviews.2
Sextette continued to reinforce West's claim as a signifier of sexual rebel-
liousness. The play is set in Great Britain, where Mario Manners, a famous
American movie star, has just married Sir Michael Barrington, a wealthy no-
bleman. Although Barrington assures reporters that Mario bears no resem-
blance to her "shocking" film characters, that she is "gentle . . . kind . . .
O ' O
reserved . . . almost—demure" within minutes he learns that he is husband

number six. "Six is merely a number," Mario assures him. Yet Barrington
grows more anxious, especially when it becomes evident that Mario's con-
niving manager, Dan Turner, is also in love with her. Turner constantly inter-
rupts the couple and insists that Mario make a screen test before departing
on her honeymoon. Barrington hopes to convince Mario to retire and devote
herself to being his wife, but when he finds Turner alone with her in her
bedroom, Barrington threatens divorce.
' O
Things only get worse when Laslo Karolny, a passionate Hungarian film
director and Mario's fourth husband, turns up. As fate would have it, he has
been selected to direct Mario's screen test. To complicate matters even
more, husband number five, Vince Norton, appears. He is a real surprise—
a notorious gangster believed killed in a plane crash years before. He asserts
that he is Mario's true husband since she never divorced him. To prove his
love, he has arranged for the return of her jewels, long ago lost in a robbery.
But Scotland Yard shows up to arrest the gangster, and Mario reveals she ob-
tained a secret divorce from him. Barrington, deciding that he cannot live
without her, whisks her away for a honeymoon in Italy. "You can't get away
from destiny, so get with it," she advises him. "You and I will make history
with this honeymoon."3
284 M A E * WEST
Mario Manners perpetuated the blending of West's fictional and real

selves for her audiences. With sly references to her well-known personal
history, West cemented herself to Mario. Manners is a movie star who, de-
spite all Barrington's claims, turns out to be much like her spicy screen char-
acters. She has enjoyed a vast number of lovers, and her desire for sex is
insatiable as she moves from man to man. Laslo, who Mario claims under-
stands her better than anyone else, predicts that Harrington is just a passing
fancy, that he too will suffer the fate of other husbands.
Like her other work, Sextette contained an array of conflicting messages.
When Mario first enters,7 she is ogowned in an elaborate weddingo dress.
(Head had appropriately decorated it with West's symbol of mourning,
pearls.) The image of Mae West in a white bridal gown was a travesty in it-
self, but Mario further mocks marriage with her numerous, dispensable hus-
bands. While she has ascended into the elite, marrying nobility, Vince
Norton appears as a reminder of Mario's underclass roots. West even
slipped in a little racial confusion, concealed within Mario's screen test. In
this play within a play, Mario becomes, ironically, a seductress of British no-
bility. The Earl of Crosswith, who has lusted after her from afar, follows her
home, discovering she lives in the Limehouse district, London's Chinatown.
He confronts her with his knowledge o
that she has been leading o
a "double
life," assuring her that, nonetheless, he still loves her. "No man has learned
my secret and been the same afterward," she warns him, revealing that men
who follow her to Limehouse all suffer the same fate—suicide. He persists,
and she cautions that "it isn't only your life, it's your soul that is in jeopardy."4
Reminiscent of Klondike Annie.7 Mario's character lives amongo the Chinese
in London's poorest neighborhood. Using the Limehouse setting, West again
tries to exoticize her character (and her character's character), signifying she
is a wicked and sinful woman. But in a twist, she upends assumptions about
racial identity. It is not really clear what secret the Earl of Crosswith has dis-
covered. Could it be only that this character within a character has crossed
the color line? Or is it that she has passed for white, that her real roots are in
the Limehouse district? West hints at the latter. Those lovers who uncover
her "double life" all commit suicide. It is a deliberate inversion of the nine-
teenth-century "tragic mulatta" tales, in which a woman of color is driven by
her forbidden love for a white man to take her life. Instead, in West's ver-
sion, the white man kills himself as Mario's racially indeterminate character
lives on.
When West finished the Sextette tour, she returned to California. That
August she turned sixty-eight, and after over fifty years of intermittent road
trips, she was weary. She retreated to the Ravenswood, making occasional
I HAD T H E M ALL 28^
trips out to the beach house or to the San Fernando Valley to visit Beverly or
John Junior, who was now married and had a son. At home, she surrounded
herself with men—male housekeepers, butlers, and secretaries. Paul Novak,
handsome and muscular, with a service revolver conspicuously jammed in his
suit pocket, was her constant companion. Sometimes she was spotted dining
at Perino's,' one of Los Angeles's
o
most famous Italian eateries,7 or at Man Fook
Low, a downtown Chinese restaurant. Others remembered her happily stop-
ping by Ships, a simple diner complete with toasters on the tables.
West continued to remain aloof from the Hollywood scene, withdrawing
into her small circle of family and acquaintances. With more time to pursue
her interest in spiritual matters, she invited close friends and family to her
beach house or the Ravenswood for seances and demonstrations of psychic
power. However, as time confirmed her status as an American legend, Holly-
wood's elite, who had previously snubbed her, became more hospitable.
They began enticing her out with occasional honors. In April 1962, the Hol-
lywood Friars' Club invited her to a testimonial roast for her former vaude-
ville partner Harry Richman. She became the first woman to be admitted to
that exclusively male club. Although she declined to dine with the all-male
crowd, she agreed to speak. After an introduction by comedian George Jes-
sel, she swaggered across the stage to the podium to overwhelming applause.
A hush fell over the audience. She remained silent. Surveying the room, she
finally spoke: "This is what I've always dreamed of, wall to wall men." Rich-
man rated her appearance "spectacular."5
Other honors came her way. In 1963, she received a star on Hollywood's
Walk of Fame. The following year, the University of Southern California
paid tribute to her at a special salute to famous film pioneers. That evening
she first met the tribute's organizer, USC alumnus and Hollywood insider
Stanley Musgrove. Gloria Swanson, who emceed the ceremony, introduced
West by confessing, "I used to think I was something of a sex symbol until
Mae West came along." According to Musgrove, West was the hit of the
evening. She turned to Swanson and chuckled, "If there's anything you want
to know, just ask."6
These tributes proved that Mae West remained firmly ingrained in the
national consciousness. In fact, My Little Chickadee was released for television,
providing many with their first and only taste of the cinematic West. In
1964, Paramount courted her for a role in an Elvis Presley film, Roustabout,
sendingo studio executive Paul Nathan to meet with her at the Ravenswood.
Relying on her longtime negotiation strategy, she insisted they discuss his
proposition in her bedroom. When Nathan revealed that she would play a
carnival owner who had an alcoholic lover and was about to lose her busi-
2 8 6 M A E * W E S T
ness, she immediately dismissed him. "She is alert, sharp, eager to do a pic-
ture," Nathan reported. "But definitely not this one. She would probably like
to play it if Elvis played a small part opposite her."7
West did accept television producer Arthur Lubin's invitation to appear
on the popular sitcom Mister Ed. She had known Lubin for years; he had been
a Paramount production assistant in the 19308 and was an occasional guest at
her beach-house seances. He offered her what Paramount did not—a role as
Mae West. He even hired movers to bring in her own furniture for scenes in
her television-land boudoir and allowed her to rework her part.
Mister Ed focused on the mishaps of architect Wilbur Post, who is con-
stantly placed in awkward situations by Mister Ed, his mischievous talking
horse. Ed talks only to Wilbur, leaving family, friends, neighbors, and clients
in a constant state of bewilderment over the architect's strange o
behavior. In
West's episode, which first aired in March 1964, she hires Wilbur to re-
design her stables in French provincial for her Parisian horses. When Mae
telephones Wilbur, Ed answers, and she becomes determined to meet the
deep voice on the other end of the line. She arrives at the Posts', bawdy blues
blaringo in the background,
o '
in an elegant
o
black limousine attended by
J
tuxe-
doed escorts. Her presence awes the Posts and their next-door neighbors,
the Kirkwoods, who have gathered to see the famous star. When they ask
her for her secret to youth, femininity, and beauty, she advises, "Dress like a
woman, look like a woman, act like a woman, feel like a woman."
Of course, Mae fails to locate Wilbur's handsome-voiced associate. But
when Ed hears of the pampered life her horses lead, he turns up on Mae's
doorstep pretending he is orphaned. She takes him in, and her groomers, all
musclemen,' begin o
combingohim and rubbingo him down. But,' discoveringo
the
good life includes a bubble bath, he returns home, complaining to Wilbur,
"My name is Ed, not Edwina." Later, when Mae phones again, Ed informs
her that he is unable to "come up and see her" because the army has drafted
him. Mae hums, "I'll just have to start my own draft board."8
West's Mister Ed appearance sustained her image for yet another genera-
tion of television viewers. Unlike the Red Skelton Show or the Dean Martin
Show,' Mister Ed drew a largeo
number of children and teens. At the same time,'
it affirmed her status as a signifier of sexual rebelliousness, a proud woman
who boldly pursues men and is admired by all for her sensuality. The Posts
and the Kirkwoods marvel at her agelessness, her ability to transcend time.
Indeed, West's gowns—one a flashy floral print—and her 19603 locks indi-
cated that she was attempting to stay contemporary.
While West had some control over her dialogue, this episode essentially
remained the creation of the series' writers. The result was the immersion
of Mae West in the world of Mister Ed. Ed and Mae were a good match.
They were both tricksters who wreaked havoc on a society they had little
power over. Mister Ed was a nice transition for Mae, for the series reflected
much of the changing
o o
nature of America.
By the sixties, young people and other groups were rebelling against the
conservatism and conformist pressures of Cold War America. A countercul-
ture, the hippies, evolved and challenged the values that the postwar world
had held so dear. As the civil rights
o
movement invigorated
o
the struggle
oo
for
equal rights among oppressed groups, many Americans began to question
authority and fight for their rights. Additionally, as the Vietnam War esca-
lated, young people protested U.S. involvement in that distant conflict. As a
result, Americans were deeply divided; some embraced change, and others
clung to tradition.
Although Mister Ed was a lighthearted comedy, it also reflected the turbu-
lence of the times. Its basic premise revolved around power and conformity.
Ed constantly contests Wilbur's authority and repeatedly forces him to devi-
ate from his conformist ideals. Wilbur appears ordinary; he works hard,
loves his wife, lives in a comfortable home, and is a successful businessman,
but he puts most of his energy into hiding the fact that he talks to his horse
and, even worse, that his horse talks back.
West's reputation as a cultural rebel made her a perfect guest star for Mis-
ter Ed. Just her presence perpetuated the challenge to conformity. Like
Wilbur and Ed, she appeared idiosyncratic. She stood apart from the Posts
and the Kirkwoods; she was richer, sexier, and smarter. But she was also ec-
centric, a powerful woman completely out of step with gender norms. She
was willing to expend a considerable amount of money to treat her horses to
human comforts. In the end, West was even too much of a nonconformist
for Ed: Willing to defy all expectations of horses, he refused to permit his
masculinity to be compromised by a bubble bath.
West's guest appearance on Mister Ed was a success. The show drew some
of the highest ratings of its four-year run. Lubin scheduled her for a return
performance, and she began working on a script that included a sequence set
in the Old West. Her career seemed on the upswing. That August, she cele-
JT o o '
brated her seventy-first birthday at the hip Los Angeles nightclub the Pep-
permint Lounge, doing the twist.
While West was really beginning to enjoy her status as a legend, she con-
fronted several crises. First, Paul Novak, growing weary of harassment from
Beverly and John West, left Mae briefly. Although Mae warned him to "just
remember, there ain't no swingin' doors on this place," she soon coaxed him
home. But her personal troubles were far from over. Beverly's drinking had
288 MAE * WEST
grown worse. She had twice married and divorced Vladimir Baikoff; sup-
ported by Mae, she spent most of her time at the San Fernando Valley ranch.
The relationship between the two sisters remained uneasy. Unlike Mae's,
Beverly's entertainment career never got off the ground. Publicly Beverly
was loyal to Mae, but privately she blamed her sister for her failures, main-
taining that her family had forced her to step aside to support Mae's ambi-
tions. From Mae's perspective, Beverly had wasted her life on drink, and she
had little patience for her lack of self-discipline. Yet she remained protective
of her younger sister and finally convinced Beverly to spend five months in a
treatment program. Although it helped, eventually Beverly returned to
drinking. Stanley Musgrove, who first met Beverly in the late 19605, was as-
tonished to discover that she looked old enough to be Mae's mother.9
O
In addition to caring for Beverly, Mae wrestled with stressful litigation. In

1964, she filed a suit against Marie Lind, a Mae West imitator who billed
herself as "the one and only Diamond Lil." As early as 19^0, Mae had initi-
ated legal action against Mae West impersonators. From her perspective, it
was imperative for her to establish exclusive rights to the Diamond Lil per-
sona. By the early sixties, she had grown more determined to completely
control it. For Mae, it was not a question of money—she had plenty of that.
But anyone who dared to mimic her undermined her unique identity, the
distinctiveness that had become the essence of her performance and her
public self. She was livid when a cigar manufacturer revised her trademark
line, running advertisements with a sultry voice-over inviting, "Why don't
you come up and smoke one sometime?"
In September 1964, West's case against Marie Lind came to trial in Los
Angeles. Although Mae had earlier insisted that Diamond Lil was a real per-
son, now she claimed that the Bowery queen was a purely fictional character.
She presented early scripts and produced witnesses who testified that Dia-
mond Lil was a product of her creative work. One even argued that Diamond
Lil was synonymous with Mae West, that the two were interchangeable.
West's representatives contended that Lind's act was not just an imperson-
ation of a character but an appropriation of a personality. When Lind took
the witness stand, she maintained that Lillian Russell had been known as Dia-
mond Lil and that it was a generic name "that might apply to a dance-hall girl
or saloon singer." But Lind was no match for West's high-powered attorneys.
After listening to several days of testimony and reviewing Diamond Lil scripts,
a judge granted West exclusive legal rights to Diamond Lil. In his decision, he
noted that "a great deal of time, money and effort went into the creation of
secondary meaning identifying Miss West by the name 'Diamond Lil.' " Mae
West had finally achieved total oneness with her stage persona.10
It was not without cost. Shortly after the trial ended in mid-September,
Mae collapsed. She was rushed to a hospital, where she registered under
Beverly's name and underwent tests. After six days, she was released, diag-
nosed with diabetes. Still career-minded, West, with the help of Novak, kept
her illness strictly secret. It led some to speculate that Mae was the victim of
a heart attack; others claimed she was exhausted. In the film colony, it was
rumored that she had suffered a breakdown. Attempting to maintain her re-
silient image, Mae insisted that it was just a virulent viral infection and that
she still enjoyed boundless energy because, as a medical marvel, she pos-
sessed a "double thyroid." Yet it was clear that her health was not good, and
privately Novak often had to nurse her through diabetic seizures. Her second
Mister Ed appearance was canceled, and she turned down invitations to guest-
star on Gilligan's Island and The Hollywood Palace. All social invitations were
declined. It only J
contributed to the OgrowingO image O
of Mae as an eccentric.
She recuperated at the Ravenswood with short trips to the beach house,
where, it was rumored, the blinds remained shut all day and she walked on
the beach after dark with Novak guiding her over the sands.''
That October, Mae received another jolt. Shortly after her release from
the hospital, her brother, John, died suddenly of a massive heart attack. Both
Mae and Beverly were devastated. A funeral service was held, and he was in-
terred with Tillie and Jack in the Brooklyn family crypt. A month later, for
the first time, Mae drew up a will, leaving most of her estate to Beverly and
bequeathing $10,000 to Paul Novak; the rest was left to close friends,
cousins, and charities. Shortly afterward Mae claimed that her brother's spirit
visited her, hovering above her bed, his eyes filled with tears. She maintained
that she looked away and without a word he disappeared. With a psychic's
help, she interpreted his appearance as an expression of his remorse for disap-
pointing her by failing to settle into a career. She insisted that she mentally as-
sured him that she "was O glad he lived his life as he wanted to."12
West's well-known belief in spiritualism combined with her reclusiveness
and advancing age presented another challenge to her star image. Her illness
had left her weakened, and photographs revealed that she had grown visibly
older. And as Mae aged, she did so in a society that was more and more ob-
sessed with youth. Thanks in part to the commercialization of youth culture,
young people's fashions, language, and music were elevated as the norm.
Journalists looking for good stories often exploited the youth angle. For
Mae, it was going to be a struggle to keep up with the times.
In late 1964, West had recuperated enough from illness and grief to grant
a couple of interviews. The first was with the Saturday Evening Post's Lewis
Lapham, who scored it through a mutual acquaintance who instructed him
290 MAE * WEST
on proper Mae West interview etiquette: He must address her at all times as
Miss West, must not mention the names of certain actresses or W. C. Fields,
and must behave with utmost propriety, assuming the bearing of "an atten-
tive JyoungO man teeteringO on the edgeO
of reckless infatuation."
Lapham was happy to abide by her wishes, and after he made it past the
entrance of her Santa Monica beach house, now overgrown with weeds,
through the blinding whiteness of her living room, he was treated to a classic
Westian performance in, of course, her boudoir. She began the interview
herself, denouncing those who dared imitate her or claim the title of sex
' O
symbol. Lapham expressed total agreement. "Nothing but common drabs

tricked up in tight skirts," he affirmed. West was pleased: "Young man, I see
you understand a few things." In many ways, Lapham did understand her. His
article, in the form of a letter to a doubting friend, argues that Mae West
' O ' O
maintained an "overwhelming sexual force" despite her age. He speculated

that she had never possessed the qualities identified with a classical definition
of American female beauty and concluded that "Miss West achieves her ef-
fect by the force of her will." He believed that she was thoroughly aware of
the "artifice" of her star persona, that it was the mechanism by which she had
built and perpetuated the institution of Mae West.13
The next interviewer, acclaimed photojournalist Diane Arbus, came to the
opposite conclusion. While Arbus acknowledged that West had been a sym-
bol of sex, she portrayed the star as now sadly deceived. One of her pho-
tographs showed a seventy-one-year-old Mae West reclining seductively in
her bed with one of her monkeys, which she reportedly often slept with. Ar-
bus rejected West's verbal perpetuation of her image. West bragged, "I was
once asked what ten men I'd like to have come up and see me sometime.
Why ten? Why not a hundred, a thousand? Not all at once of course." Arbus
refused to rplayj along:
o
She noted West's odd habit of referringo to herself as
"sexy Mae" and intimated that the aging actress was a little senile. In Arbus's
view, West and her "mythical kingdom" were in decay. For many, Mae West,
as an older woman, could not stand for rowdy sex and bold womanhood.
American society would reject any seventy-one-year-old woman who tried.14
The contrasting views of Lapham and Arbus would follow Mae West for
the rest of her life. Some testified to her eternal desirability; others held stead-
fastly that she was living in a pathetic fantasy world. But as before, many were
not sure whether Mae West was serious or kidding. Since her early successes
onstage, she had left her audiences uneasy, and now, using her star persona, she
still made the public uncomfortable and uncertain. Every interaction contin-
ued to be a performance designed to challenge authority and assumptions. "All
my life," she confessed to one reporter, "I've been a put-on."15
While West's health and advancing age did force her to curtail many of
her activities, she looked to new avenues to keep alive the signifier that she
had worked so hard to build. Hoping to appeal to the younger generation,
she embarked on a recording career, this time focusing on rock and roll. In
O * O
1966, she made an album, Way Out West, which included songs by the Beatles
and Bob Dylan. She also reprised the soul hits "When a Man Loves a
Woman" and "Boom, Boom," which included the appropriately Westian
lyrics "When I walk that walk, and when I talk that talk." That December, she
followed with a holiday rock album called Wild Christmas, which included
"Put the Loot in My Boot" and "Santa, Come Up and See Me."
Some disparaged these efforts, insisting that West was too old to rock and
roll. While her albums failed to reach the top ten, they sold fairly well, and
many noted that her voice was in fine form. When journalist Helen Lawren-
son visited West at the Ravenswood in 1967, Mae produced a pile of fan let-
ters, all from teenage boys or young men who she claimed had discovered
her through her music. Entertainment reporter Kevin Thomas also came up
to interview West about her foray into the rock scene. She argued that it was
a logical trajectory, that rock and roll originated in ragtime (an indirect ac-
knowledgment of rock's black roots). To prove the link she treated him to
spontaneous versions of "Doin' the Grizzly Bear" and "My Maricooch a Make
a da Hoochy Macooch," two numbers from her earliest days in show busi-
ness. But she affirmed her determination to stay modern. "I like the new
beat," she told him. "The kids have the right idea."16
In 1968, West recorded another album, Great Balls of Fire, with backing
from music impresario Mike Curb. She demanded that the producer, Ian
Whitcomb, use African-American musicians as her accompanists, but he re-
fused. Instead, he recorded the instrumentals without her, later bringing her
in to do her vocal tracks in a single session. In addition to a rendition of the
O
Doors' "Light My Fire," which West complained was nonsense, she recorded
"Rock Around the Clock" and "Happy Birthday 2 i." Whitcomb composed a
song in her honor called "How Miss West Won World Peace," a bawdy Wes-
tian plan for ending the Cold War with the seduction of world leaders.
When her recording session finished, she prepared to leave through the back
door. But, learning that an African-American rhythm and blues band was
waiting in the lobby to rehearse, she announced to Whitcomb, "I'll exit right
through them, dear." As she did, Whitcomb claimed, the waiting musicians
O O
responded with a resounding "Amen." But it was a while before anyone got
to hear the results of West's work that day. Great Balls of Fire was held up un-
til Mike Curb became the head of MGM Records and finally ordered the
company to release it in 19 7 2. 17
292 MAE ** WEST
West's flirtation with the recording industry allowed her to perpetuate

her status as a trickster and rebel. It was a crafty effort to signify her symbol
by using her voice rather than her physical image. While her body, a key ele-
ment of her performance, was no longer as mutable as it once had been, the
voice was still strong and very Westian. Aware of the press's negative manip-
ulation of her visual image, she began denying interviewers' requests to pho-
tograph her. The only images released to the public were carefully
retouched portraits. For Way Out West, she posed among admiring young
backup musicians, wearing a tight, gold evening gown. A publicity photo of
her playing the guitar was worked over; her face wrinkle free, she sported a
psychedelic print dress and a beehive hairdo. But for the most part, she re-
lied on her now legendary voice and her unique language play. She was aided
by the publication of a collection of her witticisms, entitled The Wit and Wis-
dom of Mae West. The book's opening pages assured readers:
And 'neath the sun I've found but one

Tradition I can trust:
One thing that's sure and does endure
Is Mae West's bust.18
In the mind's eye, the trickster defied age and lived on.
Slowly, West made remarkable progress in regaining her health, and Hol-
lywood again began to approach her with offers. In 196^, producer Ross
Hunter tried to recruit her for his The Art of Love, but when he refused to let
her rewrite her part, she backed out. She turned down Italian director Fed-
erico Fellini, who offered her a part in Juliet of the Spirits and a role as the
erotic witch mother in Satyricon. Those parts, she felt, were not suited to
her character;' theyJ would not be useful in her struggle
oo
to maintain and sig-o
nify her image.
In the meantime, West, now almost seventy-five, made a brief return to
public performing. In February 1968, the USC film fraternity, Delta Kappa
Alpha, honored her. Rather than taking the stage and answering questions
from the audience as was customary, she arranged to appear in a brief skit.
After the oguests finished eating,
tv the lights
o went upr on the
to stage,' revealing
o
USC's star football players, including Ron Yary and O. J. Simpson, in a hud-
dle. On cue, they parted, and there was Mae West stretched out on a white
chaise lounge. Director George Cukor, an old friend who was acting as mas-
ter of ceremonies, attempted to interview her about her early career. In-
stead, she "cut off the questioning and nodded to her piano player . . . and
then started telling the story of Diamond Lil." She followed with "Frankie
and Johnny" and received a standing ovation. Before exiting, she addressed
the crowd: "I want to thank you for your generous applause—and your
heavy breathing." "Roll me over," exclaimed entertainment reporter James
Bacon, "I'm in love with Mae West all over again."19
West knew that she did not possess the endurance to return to the stage and
held out hopes for a film comeback. She told Kevin Thomas of plans to trans-
form Catherine Was Great into a rock opera. She also became determined to film
a new version of Diamond Ii/, this time in color. But she got the strongest sup-
port in Hollywood for her plans to bring Sextette to the screen. She began ne-
gotiations with several producers and Warner Bros, for the project. When she
revealed her plans to ESP expert Richard Ireland, who had replaced the now
deceased Jack Kelly as her spiritual adviser, he predicted that she would soon
return to the screen but not in Sextette.
She interpreted it as a sign when the William Morris Agency informed her
that Twentieth Century—Fox and producer Robert Fryer wanted her for a film
based on Gore Vidal's bestseller Myra Breckinridge. Vidal's controversial novel
focused on a gay film critic, Myron Breckinridge, who undergoes a sex change
operation and, as the gorgeous Myra, seeks revenge against men and the film
industry. West read a draft of the script and, assuming that Fryer wanted her to
play Myra, turned him down, protesting, "I like my sexes stable." But at a
Ravenswood meeting with Fryer and the film's director, Hollywood new-
comer Michael Same, the producer graciously corrected her mistaken impres-
sion. They did not want her for Myra; they had envisioned her as Hollywood
talent agent Letitia Van Allen. Again West balked. In Vidal's novel, Van Allen
is beaten by a male lover and hospitalized. Mae was in no way going to play a
victim of a batterer. Rather, "I might send him to the hospital," she opined.20
Fryer persisted. He offered her $3^0,000, top billing, a private dressing
room decorated in white French provincial, and Edith Head as her costume
designer. But what really sold West was Fryer's guarantee that she would
have complete control over her dialogue. She signed on and soon changed
the character's name to Leticia, contending that her friends might mispro-
nounce the name, putting the emphasis "on the tit."21
By the summer of 1969, Twentieth Century—Fox was heralding Myra
Breckinridge with a barrage of advance publicity. Even before the film went
into production, West was granting interviews to promote it. Although she
had not appeared in a movie in almost twenty-six years, she informed re-
porters, "It's a return, not a comeback. I've never really been away, just
busy." Although she feigned ignorance about co-star Raquel Welch, cast as
the transsexual Myra Breckinridge, she spoke glowingly of Michael Same,
praising the director as "a very bright young man."22
294 MAE * WEST
Behind the scenes, however, almost everyone, including West, quickly

became frustrated with Same. The director had decided to transform Vi-
dal's complex satire of Hollywood and sexuality into a film script himself. In
an effort to retain the novel's flavor, Same envisioned the project as avant-
garde and planned explicit sex scenes and a pastiche of footage from old
films as fantasy sequences. The result, in Mae's estimation, was baffling; she
consistently complained that the script made no sense. Others involved in
the project, including Welch and film critic Rex Reed, who had accepted
the role of Myron, shared her opinion.
That August, before shooting began, Welch made friendly overtures to
West, calling her on the phone to chat. In turn, West invited her up to the
Ravenswood for a visit. She prepared the complete treatment for the young
actress, considered by many to be Hollywood's hottest sex symbol. But mo-
ments before Welch arrived, the air conditioner blew a fuse. Stanley Mus-
grove, now working as West's publicist, and several assistants scurried to fix
it. Mae rushed into her legendary bedroom, made the bed herself, and
quickly picked up the rest of the apartment. When the Ravenswood switch-
board announced Welch's arrival, Mae sequestered herself in her bedroom
preparing for an entrance. Welch knocked, Musgrove took his place on a
white sofa, Mae closed the bedroom door, and her butler let the Hollywood
starlet in. After the usual suspenseful moments, Mae West swept into the
room, shook Welch's hand, and offered her a drink. Welch requested spring
water, West's favored beverage as well. She professed her admiration for the
veteran actress's work and revealed her reservations regarding Same. While
O O
Mae too was concerned, she remained politely noncommittal.

Privately, as West revised her part, she grew increasingly impatient with
Same's conception of the film. "As for the fantasy angle," she told friends at
dinner one evening, "it's like someone tells you a story and you get all inter-
ested. Then they say, 'then I woke up and it was all a dream.' You want to
smack 'em in the face." With the assistance of Musgrove and a screenwriter,
O '
David Giler, she remolded the plot and attempted to reconstruct Leticia Van
Allen into the Mae Westian character. West's early drafts transformed Van
Allen into a powerful female booking agent who worked from a casting bed,
not a casting couch. After a vigorous romantic interlude, she puts one young
beau in the hospital. As a subplot, Van Allen is also a popular recording artist;
with old-fashioned Hollywood flourish, West sketched in several musical
numbers. When Musgrove finally saw West's first drafts, he discovered that
she had deleted several of Welch's scenes. Urging her to put them back, he
suggested
oo
she consider Welch's character as a homosexual. He claimed that
revelation reinvigorated
O
West, at least for the moment. When her interest
7
I HAD T H E M ALL
295
flagged
OO
again,
O '
Fryer sent over a song
J O
for her to review,' "Hard to Handle." She was
delighted to learn that she would be backed by an all-male African-American
chorus in ties and tails. But, still fearful of the racial climate, she cautioned
Musgrove, "They must never touch me—because of the southern senators."23
Yet Sarne was determined and as singleminded
O
as West. Regardless
O
of the
concerns expressed by Fryer, West, and the rest of the cast, he tenaciously
clung to his vision of Myra Breckinridge. His refusal to address their criticisms
only further alienated those involved in the film. In her dealings with him,
West, like others, found him arrogant and rude. In early September 1969,
Sarne came to the Ravenswood to discuss West's reconception of her role.
Although Fryer approved of her revisions, according to Musgrove, Sarne
"sniggered at them." West was outraged. As Sarne departed from her apart-
ment and walked down the hall to the elevator, she mimicked him. Mus-
grove and Fryer found themselves laughing uncontrollably at her amazingly
on-target impersonation.24
Myra Ereckinridge limped along under a cloud of dissension and discontent.
The atmosphere brightened briefly once the filming began. Sarne acquiesced to
West's changes and even sought Musgrove's guidance on handling the legendary
star. Musgrove instructed him to laugh at her jokes and compliment her appear-
ance. When West arrived for her first day on the set in mid-October, Sarne, on
behalf of the entire cast and crew, presented her with a bouquet of white
roses, arranged in the shape of a large heart with her name across the middle.
Musgrove noted that, at least for the time being, West's presence had lifted
the cast's mood from "dreary anxiety" to "pleasant excitement."25
West promptly began preparing a scene in which Van Allen, arriving at
her white French provincial office complete with large round bed, strolls
past a long line of aspiring actors and breathes, "Get your resumes out,
boys." She felt it required her special attention, and she spent one entire day
sequestered in her dressing room auditioning over thirty young actors for
the scene. When she emerged, Rex Reed asked her what she had been doing.
"Well" she drawled, "we weren't playing Scrabble."26
It was not long before gloom again descended on the production. West's
elaborate changes in plot and dialogue clashed with Same's script, resulting
in more confusion and dissension on the set. Welch complained that West's
revised lines made her role as Myra even more incomprehensible. But Welch
also disagreed with Same's depiction of male homosexuality. "I don't think it
is a subject to be treated in a snickering way," she told one interviewer.
In many ways, pairing Welch with West was a mistake. Both women cov-
eted the status of sex symbol. The twenty-nine-year-old Welch was re-
garded as a stunning beauty, and she was well aware that her marketability
296 * MAE * WEST
relied on her sex appeal. For West, it went even deeper; desirability and al-
lure were more than just commodities—they were instruments of power.
Unlike Welch, she had never enjoyed acknowledgment as a true beauty, but
she had spent a lifetime enacting it. As West had grown older she had re-
solved her greatest internal struggle, her quest for identity, by cementing it
to her celebrated image as a signifier of sex. When a journalist asked West
to discuss the differences between her public and private selves, she con-
tended that "the public Mae West is more exaggerated for the screen. She's
pretty much the same as the private Mae West, who is less exaggerated."
West inevitably treated Welch as an interloper.
Welch was awed, frustrated, and angered by West. "I'm still on a four-
year-old studio contract and have no protection on this picture whatever," she
told an interviewer. "I'm the one with the head on the block." Although o
she
regarded
o West as all-powerful,
r ' Welch fought
o back. She resisted changes
& in
her dialogue
o and warned David Giler against
o tampering
r o with her lines. She
discerned West's attempts to transform Myra Breckinridge into a Mae West ve-
hicle. "Mae West is the inimitable Mae West and she has nothing o
to do with
the Leticia Van Allen in the book,"' Welch commented. "She is making o
an en-
tirely separate picture from the one I'm making." Her actions succeeded in
angering not only West but also Edith Head. At Head's urging, West's con-
tract had specified that when she shared scenes with other characters, she was
to appear exclusively in black-and-white gowns. The savvy designer knew
that the black-and-white contrast would make West stand out on the screen.
According to Head, Welch, at Same's direction, showed up in a black-and-
white ogown to film a scene with West. Both West and Head were furious:
Welch eventually ended up in blue. According to Musgrove, Edith Head re-
marked during Myra Breckinridge's filming, "God, I'm glad I drink."
As rumors circulated about the West-Welch feud,7 interviewers sought o out
the two, attempting to fan the fire. Welch told Look magazine, "She looks
wonderful in person, and is a tiny little lady, absolutely minute." And she
lodged a stinging criticism: "If you can buy the fact that a seventy-seven-year-
old woman can sexually put a twenty-seven-year-old boy in the hospital, then
you can buy anything in this picture." When Look sought West's reaction, she
defaulted to classic Westian double messages.o
She contended.' "You're never
too old to become younger," and insisted that she still enjoyed an active sex
life. When pressed about Welch, she had little to say except, "She's a sweet
thing. She has one or two little scenes in the picture, I believe."27
The division between West and Welch paled in comparison to the contin-
uing tensions between the entire cast and Michael Same. As filming pro-
ceeded, the project became increasingly chaotic. In late spring 1970, with
Same undecided on an ending, $ i .£ million over budget, and way behind

schedule, the studio pulled the plug. They insisted that he wrap it up and be-
gin editingo the film for release.28
o
In June 1970, Myra Breckinridge was finally ready for the big screen. The stu-
dio, believing that the film would receive a positive reception in progressive
San Francisco,' sent it there for a trial run. AccordingOto West,' who declined to
attend, the crowd cheered her each time she appeared on the screen. Same,
who had already deleted much of her material, was infuriated. When he re-
turned to Los Angeles at three the next morning, he began reediting the film.
West's circle insisted that he was so angered
o
byJ her scene-stealingo that he cut
much of her work completely out. Reportedly, he dumped the footage in a
trash bin on the Fox lot. When Fryer discovered Same's deed, he demanded
the director restore her scenes. Same followed orders at least to a point: He
claimed that some of the discarded film had already been hauled away and
lost forever.
The reedited film made two debuts, one in Hollywood and another at
New York City's Criterion Theater. West and most of the cast opted for the
Manhattan opening. Ads for the film's debut beckoned, "You Gotta See It to
Believe It!" Appropriately, capturing the difference between the symbols
conveyed by Welch and West, they showed the two side by side. Welch held
an outstretched baton and wore a red, white, and blue bikini and white
boots. Mae posed, as she had done over thirty years before, as the Statue of
Liberty draped in Old Glory. With Welch, everything was revealed; with
Mae, what lay beneath Liberty's red, white, and blue gown as she lifted her
torch high
O
into the air was left to the imagination.
O
On one level,' Welch ap-
1
peared as the cheerleader for messages long signified by Mae West.29

On opening night, June 23, 1970, a mob of 2,000 spectators packed the
streets around the Criterion. When Welch arrived, the crowd pressed
against the wooden police barricades, chanting her name. When West ar-
rived, pandemonium broke lose. As she stepped out of a black limousine, the
mob surged
o
and "splintered
r
the barriers trying
J o
to reach her." Fans rushed to-
ward the legendary actress, and aides hustled her into the theater.30
Unfortunately but not surprisingly, the critics did not share the opening
night crowd's enthusiasm. Almost universally, Myra Breckinridge received hos-
tile notices. The New York Times's Vincent Canby decried the loss of the
novel's biting satirical tone and proclaimed that the film only demonstrated
"the lengths to which today's moviemakers will go to try to be different and
dirty." He also balked at West, claiming that she possessed "the figure of a
cinched-in penguin and a face made of pink-and-white plaster in which little
holes have been left for her eyes and mouth." While others agreed that the
298 MAE * WEST
film was both meandering o

and obscene—it received an X rating—several
o
contended that West's appearance was its highlight. Another reviewer com-
plained that she was not on the screen nearly enough and noted that when
she did appear "she sweeps in regally, sumptuously gowned and coiffed, and
intoningo amusing o
lines."31
In general, the public, many of whom had been drawn to Myra Breckinridge
by West's return to the screen, found the film distasteful and poorly pro-
duced. One moviegoer o
declared it a "witless melange
o
of street dirt,"
'
and
even the hip generation embracing the sexual revolution of the 19605 turned
away from the film. Within a few weeks of its release, it was clear that Myra
Breckinridge was a box office disaster. Twentieth Century—Fox withdrew it,
and Michael Same found himself a Hollywood outcast. Even West, who in
old Hollywood style had kept her disagreements with the film's director pri-
vate, publicly criticized the picture. In an interview just after the premiere,
she expressed reservations. "I'm not too sure about Myra Breckinridge" she
remarked. "They didn't use enough of me or my material until the budget
had been run up high." Later, she was even more to the point, suggesting that
audiences were "disturbed, confused, and irritated" by the film. "He should
have had a narrator explain what it was all about," she insisted, "or distrib-
uted 'A Guide to the Confused' pamphlets."32
Despite Myra Breckinridge's failure, the movie rekindled so much interest
in Mae West that one journalist labeled it a "Mae West revival." Shortly after
the film's debut, she released a new edition of her autobiography, updating
her fans on her achievements since 1959. Most major newspapers and maga-
zines sought her out for interviews. In addition to repeating over and over
the life story of an independent, ambitious, and always victorious star, she
also held forth on a variety of timely issues. She deplored the Vietnam War
but refused to endorse any particular politician or party. She praised young
people but insisted to one journalist that the unrest and societal divisions
were a part of a "conspiracy." To the chagrin of a Twentieth Century—Fox
publicist, she endorsed the left. "Communists have done a lot of good
things," she contended. "You can't tear them down. They're the ones who
got old age pensions, money for the poor, unemployment so they can at least
live." The studio representative interjected, "She means socialism, not Com-
munism." West just silently nodded.33
It was an odd confession from a woman who had shied away from the left
during the Cold War and, in the early sixties, had led Lewis Lapham to con-
clude that she was "right of Goldwater." But Mae often reversed her posi-
tions, always leaving an element of uncertainty. Mae's glowing appraisal of
Communism may have been calculated to unnerve the studio's publicist or
the interviewer; it also may have represented her attempt to mirror the times.
With the escalation of the Vietnam War, the hostility toward the left had
eased, especially among the younger generation, whom Mae saw as her newest
and most loyal supporters. The radicalism of the 19608, in particular with
more attention to class, had created an atmosphere that embraced many of the
attitudes that she had long communicated subversively through her work.
While she had backed away from those themes after World War II, by the
19608, with sectors of society rebelling against the Cold War climate, Mae
found that her symbol was becoming ever more popular. Her endorsement of
the contemporary slogan "Make love not war" seemed to give it all the more
meaning.o
Mae affirmed,' "There should be more loving o
and less fighting."
o o
West also embraced her reputation as a liberated woman. She seemed
firmlyJ aware that scholars had begun
o
debatingo
her imageo
and were divided
over her relationship to feminism. On the one hand, West rejected femi-
nism. Believing it undermined a woman's feminine qualities, her most pow-
erful weapon in the battle between the sexes, she flatly declared, "I don't
consider myself a feminist." At the same time, she proclaimed support for
the women's liberation movement. "Liberation was always in the back of my
mind," West told a reporter. Emphatically, she insisted that her lifelong goal
had been to elevate women, to portray characters that made them feel proud
as well as powerful. "I'm always for the woman lifting the woman up," she
claimed. What prevented many feminists of the day from fully embracing
Mae West was her continued reliance on female desirability as her major at-
tribute in the struggle against patriarchy. But Mae exploited her own philos-
ophy as an opportunity to perpetuate her rebellion, to continue the
subversive pranks she had always played. The trickster could be almost
eighty and still enjoy sex. "Age has nothing to do with sex," she insisted. "Sex
is a frame of mind,' and let me sayJ I've O
got a veryJ O
good mind." In an instant,'
within the same interview,' she insisted that she had not changed o
since she
was twenty-six (or, as she often claimed, twenty-sex). She consistently be-
fuddled and disappointed those who hoped to claim her as an icon of liber-
ated womanhood. But in Mae West's world,' nothingo could stand still:'
everything had to be in flux.34
In addition to embracing her symbol as the liberated woman, she
emerged as a vocal supporter of the modern gay struggle. While she clung
to her antiquated notion that gays were men with women's souls, she
pleaded for tolerance and understanding. "The gay boys—looks like they're
gonna take over," she remarked proudly to several reporters, reflecting on
the escalation of the gay rights movement. She boasted that The Drag and The
Pleasure Man were sympathetic treatments of homosexuality that had offered
300 MAE * WES*
employment to numerous gay performers. When the Los Angeles Times ran a
story claiming that she had called musclemen "fags," she immediately re-
sponded with a scathing letter. "Never in my life have I used the word fag"
she wrote. She denied that she had speculated on "body builders' sexual ori-
entation" and claimed she knew, from personal experience, that many mus-
clemen were definitely straight.
West was aware that the gay community comprised some of her most loyal
followers. Dating back to her early career, she had been celebrated as an icon
in gay culture. With the growing struggle for gay rights, her popularity had
soared in that sector. Her appeal extended beyond her exaggerated image of
femininity; West's famous witticisms and her blunt and bold expressions of
sexuality were celebrated not only by women but also by gay men. Just after
the premiere of Myia Breckinridge, the Gay News, which had sent a reporter to
cover Mae's press conference, reprinted a long list of her Westianisms verba-
tim. "If you were in a hospital bed, who would you want in the next bed?"
someone asked. "Well," she responded, "I'd want a man there."35
Many speculated on the relationship between West's style and gay camp.
She vociferously maintained that the boldness of camp originated in her
brazen portrayal of womanhood. She remained supportive of gay rights but
resisted categorizing her performance style in what was essentially a male
tradition. Of course, in her early career West had borrowed from gay per-
formers, but by this point they had also absorbed much from her. Her image
of strength, sensuality, and womanishness was an empowering symbol for
both women and gay men struggling for equality in a world dominated by
heterosexual men. Still, West became incensed at being constantly com-
pared to female impersonators and characterized as camp. At a benefit for
Tom Bradley, who would soon become Los Angeles's first African-American
mayor, actress Martha Raye kissed West on the cheek and praised her as "the
queen of us all." Mae was gracious but later speculated that Raye's comment
was "a crack." StanleyJ
Musgrove
o
began
o
withholdingo articles from West that
36
referred to her style as camp.
At the same time, Musgrove realized the potential for publicity carried
by West's relationship to camp and drag. In his personal papers, he saved a
script that he helped author for Rona's Reports, radio spots on Hollywood
happenings delivered by columnist Rona Barrett, a friend of Mae's who
shared her interest in spiritualism. Barrett announced that a new porno-
graphic film called Dinah East had gone into production. Reportedly, the
film was about a starlet who is killed in an automobile crash; an autopsy re-
veals that she was a he. Barrett noted that the film was based on the old ru-
mor that Mae West was really a man. She also teased listeners with the
I HAD T H E M ALL 30!
scoop that when West died, a secret that had been hidden for many years
would be revealed.
Mae reveled in the mystery that surrounded her and in interviews rein-
forced an indeterminacy. She gleefully bragged that her participation in Myra
Breckinridge would again revive the debate over censorship. In another inter-
view, she supported stricter censorship. "Right now, I think censorship is
necessary," she contended. "The things they're doing and saying in films right
now just shouldn't be allowed." When discussing the sexual revolution, she
often declared herself its foremother; in other instances, she suspiciously as-
serted that "somebody" was "pushing" the new sexual permissiveness. West
continued to play with dualisms, often leaving her interviewers confused as
she contradicted herself within a few sentences. Some wrote it off to age. o
Others maintained she was as sharp and as puzzling as always.37
In many ways, Mae was more alive than ever. She had finally successfully
transformed the entire world into her stage, the one place where she truly
felt comfortable and in control. Interviewers flocked to the Ravenswood,
deferentially seeking out the Hollywood legend. They were rarely disap-
pointed, for Mae entertained them one and all. One politely asked, "If you
had your life to live over again, would you do anything different?" "No," she
replied, "I'd do everything, only more of it."38
Although West had embraced the media as a perfect forum in which to
continue her work, she had not abandoned hope for another return to the
screen. She appeared to be in robust health, but her advancing age made it
increasingly difficult to pursue this goal. Hollywood, more than ever en-
tranced by youth, was reluctant to back a Mae West project. As she slowed
down, she was forced to relinquish more and more oversight of her career to
Stanley Musgrove. His inclusion in her inner circle directly affected the na-
ture and direction of her work during her final years. Interviews were some-
thing she could control, but the complicated and rigid nature of the
entertainment industry required an energetic expert like Musgrove.
Musgrove was widely respected and well connected in show business. He
maintained a partnership with Robert Wise, the famous director of The
Sound of Music and West Side Story. In addition to his insider status, Musgrove
also had a clear understanding of the star's ego. Unlike Same, he was not
confrontational and sought to appease performers like Mae West by appeal-
ing to their vanity. When dealing with Mae, he proceeded gingerly, quickly
discerning her likes and dislikes, knowing what to say and what not to say. In
many ways, he insulated her. He continued to keep press coverage he deter-
mined upsetting away from her and even hid unflattering photographs. Mus-
grove's approach may have been manipulative, but it was not an uncommon
3O2 M A E * WEST
tactic for handling top names like Mae West, who could be temperamental,
unreasonable, and easily angered.
While on the surface Musgrove appeared attentive and willing to work
within West's rigidly structured world, he often grew frustrated with her. In
his view, she was, even for a star, abnormally self-centered and moody. She
often harangued him on the phone for hours. Additionally, like others, he
perceived her as startlingly self-deceived and was appalled at her declarations
of her eternal youth and extraordinary talent. He dreaded her incessant brag-
ging about her past and found her repetition of stories so boring that he once
cut short an interview she was giving to a graduate student writing a disserta-
tion on vaudeville. Forced to endure a dinner with Mae at George o
Cukor's
house where they listened to Great Balls of Fire, he confided to his log, "I'd
heard most of it several times and I'm sure I looked bored and tired."39
Musgrove's reaction to Great Balls of Fire may have had something to do
with Mike Curb's association with the album. During the filming of Myra
Breckinridge, Musgrove and Wise were planning a television special entitled A
Night with Mae West. But so was Curb, who hoped to use it to promote her al-
bum. As a result, both parties put considerable effort into courting West for
their respective projects. She refused to commit to either one. Musgrove en-
listed the support of Edith Head, who agreed to draw up some costumes for
his proposed special. He generated scripts only to have Mae reject them as
"too old-fashioned." One day when he showed up at the Ravenswood, she
presented him with her own script, which he found outrageously vulgar. He
panicked when he read in the Los Angeles Times that she was going ahead with
Curb's special. When Musgrove confronted her, West reassured him; she
would do his first and Curb's second. But with the negative reception of
Myra Breckinridge, Musgrove's plans collapsed. His sponsor, the Singer
Sewing Machine Company, fearing it might be linked with the disastrous X-
rated movie, pulled out. Before long, Curb's plans fizzled as well.
Regardless, Musgrove stood by West, almost as if he were playing the
role of one of her faithful but scheming managers. In turn, Mae, completely
in character, was aware of his machinations and plotted to get the most out
of him. She never completely trusted him; when he made phone calls, she
secretly listened in from her bedroom extension, then later quizzed him
about what he had said. For Musgrove,
o '
it was an emotional roller coaster. He
was well aware that she was suspicious of him, and her behavior toward him
was completely unpredictable. Sometimes she subjected him to angry out-
bursts, and other times she treated him like a confidant. Her moods changed
within seconds. Paul Novak had never seen her cry, she once insisted to Mus-
grove. When Musgrove expressed astonishment that she never cried, she
snapped back, "I didn't say that, I said Paul hadn't seen me cry." She also
claimed that she was not in love with the former muscleman and that he was
no more than a good friend. Musgrove remained distrustful of her and as-
cribed her contradictory behavior and admissions to her eccentric nature.
West's approach was calculated to keep Musgrove off guard. The element
of surprise allowed her to control him. She once sternly warned him, "Don't
you ever go against anything I say." For Mae, men were never to be trusted
and were always to be manipulated. Her relationship with Musgrove carried
not only professional but also personal objectives. It reaffirmed her identity
40
and served as another engagement
o o
in her ongoing
o o
war against
&
patriarchy.
r J
Despite his Hollywood savvy, Musgrove found West continually baffling. It
was difficult for him to appreciate the subtleties of her merged personal and
professional selves. Material he wrote for her, which she often rejected,
lacked the nuanced multiplicity of meanings that had been the hallmark of her
work. His later biography of Mae depicted her as a delusional and embittered
woman who treated everyone the same way she treated him. But West's per-
sonal assistant, Tim Malachosky, who joined her entourage in 1970, viewed
her as kind, unflappable, and generous—evidence that not every member of
her inner circle was forced to submit to her bristling temper. While Mae re-
mained a contradiction, even in her personal life, it seems that Musgrove never
understood her; he never went beyond the surface. Additionally, Musgrove's
logo of his interactions with West and her associates contained racial and homo-
phobic slurs indicating that he did not always share her open-mindedness. Ide-
ologically, Musgrove and West were incompatible, but it was his professional
hand that guided her through the final years of her life.41
Musgrove also thought West's involvement in spiritualism and the psychic
world was a little wacky, yet her interest in such matters continued to grow.
As Myra Breckinridge drew her back into the public eye, she began inviting
more people to seances and demonstrations of ESP at her beach house. The
wide-ranging guest list included fans, Hollywood notables, some of those in-
volved in Myra Breckinridge, and Hollywood reporters. Nevertheless, Mae re-
mained exceptionally shy and extremely protective of her private world.
When longtime acquaintance Sidney Skolsky attended a session, he noted
that Mae graciously received each guest, directing him or her to the living
room, yet for most of the evening, she silently watched from behind a parti-
tion in the dining room. Even at her own parties, she chose to be alone and
observe the festivities from a safe distance.42
While West maintained a protective distance from acquaintances and
show business people, she thrived on the attention she received from the
public. And the Mae West revival rolled on. One journalist noted an active
304 M A E * W E S T
Mae West fan club and reported that West maintained a scrapbook of recent
fan letters. Although She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel had remained
banned for thirty-five years, the resurgence of interest in West (and the
demise of the Hays Office) compelled Paramount to release them once
again. Soon she became a topic in film history courses, and she received even
more honors. In late 1969, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci-
ences staged a tribute to her, with a thousand members according her a
standing ovation. "If you told me twenty-five years ago that Mae West would
receive a standing ovation in the citadel of the motion picture academy,"
Skolsky wrote, "I would have looked at you funny." In the fall of 1970, USC
voted her Sweetheart of Sigma Chi. The following year UCLA named her
O O J
Woman of the Century, applauding her for breaking down barriers for
women. Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club also saluted her. Even the Venice
Film Festival offered a formal recognition of her contributions to film.43
On April 14, 1973, she received one of Hollywood's greatest honors. The
Masquers Club, one of the film colony's oldest fellowships of performers,
declared it "Mae Day" and honored her with the George Spelvin Award. The
affair proved that Mae West, who was only five months away from her eight-
ieth birthday, was in excellent shape. Testimonial speeches credited her with
saving Paramount from bankruptcy and heralded her as "the only woman
with whitecaps in her waterbed." Mae waived the traditional acceptance
speech:
r '
instead,' with a ragtime
o
piano blaring
r t o
in the background,
o '
she took
the stage and entertained the crowd for almost thirty minutes. She opened
with a soliloquy of the saga of Diamond Lil and followed with a version of
"Frankie and Johnny," spoken a la Bert Williams. While the audience lis-
tened to her album Great Balls of Fire, she took a short break. She then reap-
peared with "a little song I wrote while the jury was out" and launched into a
tune about The Pleasure Man. For her finish, she appropriately returned to her
black roots, wrapping the evening up with the African-American blues bal-
lad "After You're Gone." As Mae sang, "You'll miss the best girl you've ever
had," the crowd went wild. And to everyone's astonishment, she finished, as
she had at the peak of her vaudeville days, with a shimmy. The audience
stomped their feet, hooted, cheered, whistled, and applauded. It was a re-
markable encore. It would be her last live performance.44
* T * H * I * R * T * E * E * N *
/ Wrote the Story Myself
I wrote the story myself. It's all about a girl who lost her repu-
tation but never missed it.
—Mae West, Wit and Wisdom, 1967
f course, Mae West, now an octogenarian, had no intention of
O retiring. She told one writer, "I've got so much energy, I look
great, I want to work. Work is very important to a woman like
me." Although there were few professional opportunities, she
became sought-after socially. Through Musgrove, she met Blanche Seavers, a
wealthy USC trustee, and philanthropist Sybil Brand, both of whom often
entertained her as a dinner guest. She dined with Bette Davis and Greta
O
Garbo, both awed by her presence and strength. But she still preferred the
company of her inner circle, a tight-knit group that included Tim Mala-
chosky, Stanley Musgrove, and longtime friend and fan Dolly Dempsey, who
had known Mae since 193^. Sometimes Mae went shopping with Edith
Head. But she was almost inseparable from Paul Novak; when he shopped
for groceries, she rode along, waiting in the limousine with a secretary. In-
strumental in keeping the legend alive, he fixed her meals, chauffeured her
around, made sure she exercised daily, and carefully attended her career.1
West busied herself by producing, with assistance, two more books, both
published in 197^. With Larry Lee, who had worked for her in various ca-
pacities since 1929, she turned The Pleasure Man into a novel. She excised all
mention of drag queens, focusing exclusively on the roguish and abusive
O L ' O J O
Rodney Terrill. In the novel, Terrill appears much like The Ruby Ring's Glo-
ria or The Hussy's Nona Ramsey; he can please any woman with his shifting
personality. But he was no projection of the Mae Westian character. As in
the play, he pays for his libertine affairs with a fatal castration. During his
murderer's trial, when an attorney enters into evidence the instruments
used to perform the inexpert surgery, the novel's narrator declares that the
305
3 0 6 M A E * W E S T
women in the gallery "stared at the objects with fascinated horror." The gay
theme may have disappeared, possibly a reflection of West's attempt to dis-
tance herself from camp, but the gender message remained loud and clear.2
With the aid of a ghost writer, she also completed Sex, Health, and ESP. She
had consistently maintained that good health and mind power had allowed her
to enjoy her legendary sex life. In her book she revealed that she rechanneled
her sex drive into pure energy that propelled her through all tasks. She en-
couraged readers to strip off their clothes, lie in bed, think about sex, and,
once the "urges" increased, set off to work. In addition to advocating healthy
eating habits, she also shared her closely guarded beauty secret. She divulged
that in 1928, during Diamond Lil's run, she began to take a daily high colonic.
At first, it was probably a matter of expediency; the Royale's bathroom was
on the opposite side of the stage from her dressing room, making access im-
possible during the show. But she also believed that it purified the body of
toxins. While it was unconventional by contemporary standards, West's gen-
eration believed that colonies, enemas, and laxatives were ways of maintain-
ing good health. Although it contributed to her eccentric reputation, she had
great faith in the benefits of this old-fashioned remedy.3
While she was working on her books in the summer of 1974, sne re ~
ceived a visit from Robert E. Johnson, the editor of Ebony and Jet magazines,
two of the African-American community's most popular publications. John-
son produced a laudatory article for Jet on West's support of the black com-
munity. She no longer shied away from racial issues, openly endorsing the
African-American struggle for equality. In fact, in her recently updated auto-
biography, she boasted, "I'm proud of my efforts to advance blacks." Aware
of recent criticism that her portrayal of black maids was derogatory, she in-
sisted to Johnson that her work, while limited, offered an alternative to the
traditional stereotypes. "I was the first film star to establish a rapport with
Black maid characters in relationships that virtually were on a peer level,"
she told Johnson. "That's no big thing now, but it was considered radical
thirty-four years ago." Johnson also interviewed several African-American
performers and athletes who testified to her progressive racial attitudes.
Furthermore, as she had done many times in the past, she highlighted the
black roots of her performance. When discussing the shimmy, she offered
Johnson a live demonstration, declaring, perhaps revealingly, "This was the
Black people's dance . . . and if you ever saw it performed then you would
know that no white person could create such a dance."4
West's performance for Johnson indicated that she now attempted to link
not only her fictional character but also her star persona to the African-
American presence. Curiously, she waited until the 19708, when it was
I WROTE THE STORY M Y S E L F 307
much safer, to finally become an outspoken advocate of civil rights. In the

area of race, unlike class and gender,
7
O '
she remained tentative until the end of
her life. West was secure in her womanhood and with her working-class o
background; of all the controversial topics she explored, race, for some rea-
son, was the hardest one for her to come to terms with. Perhaps Mae, who
borrowed so liberally from the African-American community, found herself
the trickster tricked. As a white woman whose performance was so rooted
in black culture, she could never achieve either blackness or whiteness. On
the other hand, this interracialness, which upended the ideology of race and
racism, may have been one of her greatest accomplishments.
West's conflicts over race and the autobiographical nature of her work at-
test to an ongoing and complex struggle with her racial identity. Throughout
her life, she had seesawed between seeking and rejecting whiteness, between
claiming and denying blackness. Her complicated relationship with race ap-
pears similar to that of those who pass, rejecting their African-American
heritage to enjoy the privileges of white skin but all the while experiencing
guilt, fear, and self-loathing. Although Mae West had come to play the total
narcissist, a bold role for any woman—"I don't like myself, I'm crazy about
myself," she chuckled during an interview—she appeared to have mixed
feelings about herself. Whether enacting Frankie or in interviews displaying
her likeness to her African-American maid, West seemed to be consistently
daring society to confront a secret. But few were willing to accept the chal-
lenge. The trickster's ultimate deception was that the star who had become
celebrated as the symbol of white female sensuality was not really white.
Even Johnson helped perpetuate the game, entitling his article "Mae West:
Snow White Sex Queen Who Drifted."5
West told Johnson that she hoped to bring The Constant Sinner to the
screen with Sidney Poitier as her co-star. Certainly, that was impossible. But
she did move ahead on Sextette. In early 1976, she lined up two producers,
Dan Briggs and Robert Sullivan. They were only twenty-two years old, and
neither had ever made a film, but Briggs was the son of a wealthy heiress
who owned Las Vegas's Tropicana, and he had access to considerable funds.
It was imperative that the project move along expeditiously. West was en-
tering her eighty-fourth year and beginning to age considerably. Several in-
terviewers commented on her frailty. Some found her a little forgetful.
Duringo one interview she confused Diamond Lil with Sextette, and in another
she declared her intention to write her autobiography. (Paul Novak always
graciously corrected her.) From Musgrove's perspective, she was becoming
increasingly paranoid. She confided to him that she believed Sybil Brand had
put glass in her food at a banquet. She also alleged that Warren Beatty had
308 MAE * WEST
lifted material from The Pleasure Man for his film Shampoo. Suspicious that
someone had stolen one of her rings, she told Musgrove that she had forced
Novak, Beverly, and one of her butlers to take polygraph tests.
Some of West's accusations could also have been designed to keep Mus-
grove in a constant state of confusion. Many of those who encountered her
in these later years also found her remarkably keen-minded. Even Musgrove
admitted that publicly she offered a stunning performance, seeming end-
lessly sharp and retaining her classic wit. After an outing to the theater, some
members of Mae's party pressed her for an opinion. "I kept concentrating on
making my mind wander," she declared with old Westian flair. "It [the play]
made me realize there's less to life than sex."6
Eager to get Sextette off the ground, Musgrove, serving as West's liaison,
began working with Briggs and Sullivan. To direct the film, they recruited
Irving Rapper, a Hollywood veteran who had guided Bette Davis through the
1942 classic Now, Voyager. At Musgrove's suggestion, screenwriter Herb
Baker came on board to update the script. Edith Head agreed to do West's
wardrobe. African-American musician Van McCoy was selected as music co-
ordinator, to compose and oversee West's numbers. Several noted perform-
ers were happy to sign up; a chance to work with Mae West was a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In addition to Dom Deluise, whom West
called "Dan," Briggs and Sullivan recruited several rock stars, including
Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, and Alice Cooper. Tony Curtis signed on to play
one of Mario Manners's husbands. The young producing duo also arranged
for filming to take place on the Paramount lot.
In the meantime, West made a rare television appearance on Dick
Cavett's Backlot USA. Musgrove paid Hollywood's Oriental Theater, which
was going to be closed anyway, $ 2^0 to announce on its marquee, "Closed
Tonight to Watch Mae West on TV." It might not have been necessary:
West's performance was a sensation. Replete in Diamond Lil costume, she
sang "Frankie and Johnny" and "After You're Gone," for which she received a
standing ovation from everyone present for the taping. Cavett raved, declar-
ing her "the eighth wonder of the world." The New York Times affirmed, "She
is something—a wonderful, glamorous, talented and marvelously witty
something—unto
o
herself."7
But West focused most of her energy on Sextette. As a publicity stunt, her
camp announced in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter that she was conduct-
ing a talent search to find a young unknown actor to play Sir Barrington. Al-
though the press snickered at an eighty-four-year-old woman being
romanced on the screen by a young man, over three thousand men lined up
outside Paramount to audition for the part. After days of interviewing le-
gions of young men, West declared none of them appropriate. She finally ac-
cepted, at Rapper's suggestion, actor Timothy Dalton. She decided he had a
Gary Grant quality.
Almost from the beginning, problems beset the film. It was clear that
Briggs and Sullivan were severely underexperienced. West's advanced age
made it difficult for the young producers to recruit more backers. Even be-
fore a single scene was shot, the $ i .£ million budget began to balloon. Addi-
tionally, Baker's script revisions did not go well; when Mae did not reject
them, the producers did. Edith Head struggled through the entire process,
livid when she discovered that the producers, to save money, had decided to
use old gowns from West's previous films and plays. And even Head had
trouble accepting the octogenarian as sensual. "You're trying to pass her off
as a sex symbol," the designer reprimanded Musgrove. "You should be
ashamed of yourself." Irving Rapper, who was almost eighty himself, proved
another liability. According to the film's publicist, Peter Simone, during au-
ditions for West's leading men Rapper yelled, "Where's Bette?"8
By the fall of 1976, West's patience with Briggs and Sullivan, who some
believed were using her as an entree into Hollywood, had grown short. Since
they held the purse strings, however, there was little she could do except
fume. Eventually, she compelled them to fire Rapper, but she rejected all
other candidates for director, declaring them "old guys." Finally, Briggs and
' O O J J' OO
Sullivan invited English director Ken Hughes, who had worked on Disney's
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, to come to Hollywood to interview with her.
Hughes had reservations about working with the elderly actress but was sur-
prised to discover that West seemed delightfully competent. According to
Hughes, he won West over and was immediately signed to a contract. Little
did he know, Briggs and Sullivan had already put together a press release an-
nouncing that he had come on board.
Finally, on December i, 1976, over forty-three years after West first
swaggered onto a Paramount set, filming began on Sextette. The script was
still being revised, and, to appease West, Baker added scenes with male gym-
nasts and bodybuilders, more musical numbers, and a walk-on part for
George Raft. But almost immediately everything came to an abrupt halt.
West rejected most of Baker's changes. Briggs and Sullivan complained that
debts were piling up. "Well," she told Musgrove, "it's gonna cost them a lot of
money because it don't play right for me."9
The debate over the script continued. Since scenes were being added and
deleted on a daily basis, West was often caught off guard. Arriving on the set
one day, she balked at a new scene in which Mario weeps when she learns
Barrington plans to leave her. At a story conference, she roared, "Mae West
310 M A E * W E S T
would never cry over a man. She would just yell, 'Next!' " She was deaf to
arguments in favor of the scene. "Don't tell me," she warned. "I know what's
good for me."10
Hughes also thought the script was weak and with West's blessings began
revising it on his own. During the day he filmed, and each evening he re-
worked the next scenes. It left no time for West to study the dialogue. But
she trusted Hughes; she may have realized that he was the last hope for Sex-
tette. She agreed to wear a tiny receiver concealed in her wig through which
Hughes fed her lines he had written the night before. Rumors circulated that
Mae's receiver picked up police transmissions and she called them out in-
stead of her lines. Hughes
o later adamantlyJ denied it.
Almost everyone associated with the production remarked on Mae
West's amazing determination. They also noticed that time had caught up
with her. When not shootingo or issuing o
directives,' she sat in a chair resting
o
quietly. "But," remembered production assistant Sal Grasso, "the minute they
hit the lights she became the magic we know." Hughes grew disappointed
quickly. He found Mae forgetful and sometimes disoriented. She seemed un-
able to follow his directions, especially when a scene required her to move
from one spot to another. He tried marking white lines on the floor to make
it easier for her, but with her eyesight failing, she was unable to see them. He
arranged rows of sandbags to direct her across the set, but they were little
help. Eventually he resorted to shooting her from the waist up, assigning a
handsome young production assistant to crawl on the floor out of camera
range and guide her around the set. She did not protest.
Hughes remained impressed by West's dedication to seeing the film to its
finish. Although she did not begin work until early afternoon, she often
worked late into the night. He claimed that one scene, in which she walked
down a hall and entered an elevator, required seventy-four takes, which
West endured without complaint. He also described what happened after
the scene was finally completed: The crew broke into applause and packed
up for the night; when Novak arrived to pick West up, she was nowhere to
be found. After a frantic search,' Hughes
o realized that she was waitingo rpa-
tiently in the mock elevator, unaware the scene was wrapped. When they
opened the door, West asked, "You wanna go again?"11
The filming of Sextette was carried out only by West's sheer will and
forceful determination. Everyone, including Mae, thought that the produc-
tion was severely flawed. Even Novak, after viewing the dailies, realized it
was 1poor and insisted to Musgrove
O
that the musical numbers were the film's
final hope. In the end, Edith Head blamed director Hughes for cutting cor-
ners, declaring, "The filming was a tragedy." Rod Dyer, who spearheaded
I W R O T E THE S T O R Y M Y S E L F 3! I
Sextette's promotional campaign, insisted that Mae West was the reason he
survived. "That lady is still making them laugh," he told a reporter. "And the
world could use a good joke."12
In March 1977, after more than twelve arduous weeks of filming, Sextette
finished with a budget that had ballooned to over $7 million. As Hughes be-
O * O
gan editing the film, the production ran into yet another setback: Hollywood
was rife with rumors that Sextette was a flop, and no studio was willing to dis-
tribute it. To drum up support, Briggs and Sullivan scheduled sneak previews
in the spring and summer of 1977. The first was a private, star-studded
screening on the Paramount lot. Next, they secured the Bruin Theater in
Westwood, just outside UCLA's gates. The big advance publicity campaign
drew a mob, many of them college students, who packed the streets around
the theater. Inside, at the film's end, the audience gave West a standing ova-
O O
tion. Out front, she greeted

7
O
fans and then climbed into her limousine. She
turned to longtime friend Herbert Kenwith, who had served as the lighting
director on Come On Up and the Diamond Lil revival, and remarked, "That was
yesterday; now I must think of tomorrow."13
Briggs and Sullivan were not ready to move on. With debts in the mil-
lions, they were determined to put the film into theaters. After a year of
failed attempts to secure a distributor, they decided to premiere and circu-
late the film themselves. West agreed to appear at its debut at Hollywood's
Cinemadome. Just as they had done forty years before, fans filled the streets
around the theater, hoping to catch a glimpse of the legendary actress. After
the film, she took the stage and offered the public what would be her final
thanks for their support.
The critics' response to Sextette confirmed what West already knew.
Overwhelmingly, they gave it negative reviews. Several reviewers decried
her appearance, contending that the cinematography only made her look
worse. Another complained that her famous voice had grown "hoarse" and
her trademark gait unsteady. Variety commented that "the best that can be
hoped for Sextette, as far as West's reputation is concerned, is that it will be
forgotten—soon." Many were appalled at her boldness, finding it outra-
geous that an eighty-four-year-old woman would surround herself with
handsome young men and make rowdy allusions to her active sex life. The
New York Times declared the film "embarrassing" and announced, "Granny
should have her mouth washed out with soap, along with her teeth."14
As a whole, Sextette was declared a fiasco. After failing in their attempts to
distribute the film, in 1979 Briggs and Sullivan signed with Crown Interna-
tional to circulate Sextette. But it was too late. With the passage of time and
the negative reviews, interest in the film had faded. A show business insider
O
312 M A E * W E S T
sneered, "Who's gonna pay to see an eighty-five-year-old woman go to bed

with a thirty-year-old man?" Others did come to West's defense. Several
years later, scholar Carol Ward pointed out that West was being held to a
double standard. It was acceptable, even humorous, for comedian George
Burns to surround himself with beautiful young women, but it was ab-
solutely intolerable for Mae West to do the same with gorgeous young mus-
clemen. It was considered pathetic, not funny. Yet as bad as it was, Sextette
stood, probably unintentionally, as one of Mae's most revolutionary pieces.
As painful as it was to watch the aged Diamond Lil navigate through her
scenes, she was challenging the very core of gender norms, especially those
that robbed older women of sensual pleasure.
For Mae West's admirers, the Sextette debacle did not matter. After Dark,
whose correspondent had visited West on the set, announced, "Mae West is
Diamond Lil." When the magazine honored her with its Ruby Award at a
banquet, five hundred fans lined up for autographs. Asked about her experi-
ences on Sextette, Edith Head praised Mae as "a great lady and social force."
Perhaps Ken Hughes appreciated West more than it had appeared. He main-
tained that the film was "a teglorious failure,' but somehow we emerged o tri-
umphant, substantiating that adage that 'the show must go on.' "1S
After Sextette, West announced plans to film Catherine Was Great, but,
growing more infirm, she was unable to carry it off. Instead, in August 1979,
she celebrated her eighty-sixth birthday by signing a contract to do a series of
radio commercials endorsing Poland Spring Water. Although West had rarely
endorsed commercial products, this one was perfect; she had used it for
years. "I've been drinking Poland Spring Water for about—hmm—2o
years," she quipped. "Started when I was four." Since the commercials were
radio spots, she would only have to use her legendary voice. Through her
purring endorsement over the airwaves, she kept the Diamond Lil flame
burning. "I'm just crazy about it," she murmured familiarly. "I invited the boys
from Poland Spring to come up and see me sometime—and they did."16
West's public appearances were fewer and fewer. According to both Mus-
grove and Malachosky, she was growing weaker. Some days were better than
others. On good days she attended to business and began consolidating her as-
sets. She was rumored to be worth more than $ i o million. However, she ne-
glected to update her will and struggled with her mortality. In one of her final
interviews, she told a writer, "I never think about death, dear." Actually, it
seemed that Beverly was in far worse shape than her older sister. Mae ago-
nized over Beverly, whose mental state had worsened considerably. Drinking
again, Beverly had spells of violent hallucinations and at one point was discov-
ered talking to pictures on a wall of the San Fernando Valley ranch house. She
remained resentful of her famous sister, angrily

7
O J
insistingO that she did not want
to be buried in the family crypt. "I've had enough of her while I'm alive," she
told one of Mae's butlers. "I don't want to be lying
J O
next to her dead."17
Mae had bad days too. She once asked Paul Novak to take her to her beloved
mother. On occasion,' she was unsure who he was. Yet she struggled oo
on. At a
dinner party in 1980, Musgrove claimed, Mae West suddenly took over and
delighted guests with her Diamond Lil soliloquy and "Frankie and Johnny."
Shortly afterward, on August 10, 1980, a week before Mae had planned
to celebrate her eighty-seventh birthday with a big bash, she fell getting out
of bed. Novak helped her into the living room. Mae tried to speak but could
not. She collapsed in tears. Language had been her greatest gift, her most po-
tent weapon. No doubt, even she knew Mae West was dying.
She was taken to Hollywood's Good Samaritan Hospital, where tests re-
vealed that she had suffered a stroke that left her tongue paralyzed. When
the press besieged the hospital, Novak rose to the occasion. He announced
that Mae West had sustained a concussion fallingO out of bed while dreamingO
of handsome actor Burt Reynolds. But before long, the word was out that
West was severely ill.18
She passed her eighty-seventh birthday in the hospital, surprising her doc-
tors by rallying. But on August 2 7, she suffered a diabetic reaction to the for-
mula in her feeding tube. After doctors recalibrated it, she improved. Paul
Novak, by her side twenty-four hours a day, tended to her needs, took her
for walks, and even drove her out to the beach. She seemed responsive but
disoriented. Then, on September i 8, she suffered a second stroke that left
her paralyzed on her right side. She developed pneumonia and hovered near
death for several days. Somehow, she battled back and again improved. No-
vak consulted with stroke specialists, faith healers, and practitioners of alter-
native medicine. But Mae showed no more signs of progress. Finally, in early
November after exhausting all possibilities, he took her home to the
Ravenswood. He hired around-the-clock nurses and rented a hospital bed
for Mae's legendary boudoir.
When Mae's limousine pulled into the Ravenswood's underground
garage, she smiled. Novak, Malachosky, and Dempsey set up a routine, shut-
tling her between her bed and the living room. They played music for her
and talked to her. Novak secured a copy of She Done Him Wrong and screened
it for her at the apartment. Mae pointed at her image on the screen. It was
there that Diamond Lil achieved immortality.
Even in the familiar surroundings of her cherished little two-bedroom
apartment, Mae continued to decline. On the morning of November 2 2, one
of the nurses roused Paul Novak to tell him that Mae had taken a turn for the
314 M A E * WEST
worse. He found her feverish and struggling to breathe. He moved her to a

white satin chair, hoping that would make her breathing less labored. Soon her
personal physician arrived. He announced that nothing more could be done.
Novak summoned a priest from the church just down the block, who gave
Mae a blessing. Only a few minutes later, at 10:30 A.M., Mae West passed
away. The brazen Jezebel of American popular culture who had broken out of
the tenements of Brooklyn to become one of Hollywood's most famous stars,
not to mention one of America's most popular rebels, was gone.19
Across the nation and around the world, the wire services flashed the
news—Mae West was dead. But Diamond Lil, the symbol Mae West had
created, lived on. Each obituary recited the saga of Diamond Lil, the head-
lines blaring, "Mae West: Epitome of Witty Sexuality Dies" and "Mae West,
Stage and Movie Star Who Burlesqued Sex, Dies at 87." The Los Angeles Times
eulogized her as "a paradox, the ultimate sex parodist who wrote and deliv-
ered such lines as 'Goodness had nothing to do with it' and 'Beulah, peel me
a grape.' " Newspapers around the world ran her most famous sayings, ac-
quainting another generation with the Westian wordplay that had become
ingrained in the American language. It indicated the pervasiveness of Mae's
deployment of the African-American tradition of signification. The trick-
ster's voice lived on to continue to challenge and upset society's conven-
tions. The New York Times let her speak through her obituary, reprinting
Mae's summation: "It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but
how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it."20
At Musgrove's
o urging,
o o' Paul Novak organized
o a private
r service. On the af-
ternoon of November 2^, one hundred of Mae's family, friends, and acquain-
tances gathered at Forest Lawn's Old North Church to memorialize Mae
West. Beverly West had been drinking and was so distraught that she was
unable to go into the chapel. She wept outside in her limousine. Inside, Mae
lay in an open casket surrounded by whiteness—a white casket lined in
white satin,' dressed in her white pearl-trimmed
r weddingo ogown from Sex-
tette. As the final contradiction, while mourners gathered, the organist disre-
' O ' O
garded the typical funeral airs in favor of Mae's most popular tunes, many of
them the blues and including "My Old Flame,""! Wonder Where My Easy
Rider's Gone," and, of course, "Frankie and Johnny." Producer Ross Hunter
eulogized West, reminding the audience, "The Mae West character never
wanted anybody to feel sorry for her and she wouldn't want them to start
now." Now, in death, the character had completely overtaken her creator.21
That night Mae's body was flown home to Brooklyn, and the following
morning Paul Novak and Dolly Dempsey arrived at Cypress Hills for the inter-
ment. Two priests and a bishop offered short prayers and blessed the casket.
Dempsey placed a small wreath on the top, and the cemetery staff slid it
into the crypt that Mae had long ago reserved for herself, right above her
mother. The two were reunited; Mae returned home after faithfully fulfill-
ing Tillie's dreams.
O
Shortly before her death in 1981, Edith Head reminisced about her friend
Mae West: "She always knew exactly what it meant to be a woman and how
to oget what she wanted. I think she died without a regreto
in the world." And
while it was a fitting eulogy, ironically her life seemed better reflected in the
words of African-American author James Weldon Johnson. In 1912, while
Mae was still a vaudeville newcomer, he anonymously published a novel in
which the central character, a black man, passes for white. The opening lines
read, "I know that in writing the following pages I am divulging the great se-
7
O O - T O O O O
cret of my life." His life, like hers, was spent performing, and his assessment
captured the essence of an undaunted trickster-hero like Mae West. "I know
that I am playing with fire, and I feel the thrill which accompanies that most
fascinating pastime; and, back of it all, I think I find a sort of savage and dia-
bolic desire to gather up all the little tragedies of my life, and turn them into
a practical joke on society."
Some say that you can still see Mae West's reflection in the mirrors at the
Ravenswood.22
* F * O * U * R * T * E * E * N *
Really a Prologue
All my past is really a prologue. I go on and on ...

—Mae West, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, 19^9
orn in August 1893—"one of the hot months"—Mae West
B boasted that she "was a child of the new century" and that she "ran
toward it boldly." Many have viewed Mae West as a paradox, a label
she delightedly perpetuated. In the 19303, at her popularity's peak,
she announced in an interview, "I'm so ultramodern that I'm old-fashioned.
That's the real truth of the matter." From earliest childhood, Mae lived in a
swirling world of contrasts, constantly entangled in polarities and contradic-
tions. In the Brooklyn of Mae West's youth, herds of deer still wandered its
largest park while gangs of poor and working-class men and boys roamed its
streets. The young Mae was raised in transitional places and times. Born on
the cusp between two centuries, she became both the old and the new. Such
dichotomies marked her entire existence.1
But just as she was nurtured on the bridge between the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, she has become a bridge between the twentieth and
twenty-first. This later period witnessed a Mae West renaissance, a resur-
gence of public fascination with her life, movies, and plays. Videos of her
films, recordings of her songs and live performances, a made-for-televison
movie, documentaries on her life, and a compilation of her early plays ap-
peared. Her image was reproduced on postcards, greeting cards, posters,
tee-shirts, pens, and even address labels. Over a dozen books on her life and
work were published, including insider accounts by members of her inner
circle, popular biographies that perpetuated her image as a legendary sex
goddess, and academic interpretations wrestling with the meaning of Mae
West and her performance. Several parts of the country hosted revivals of
SEX and Diamond Lil. By the year 2000, Mae West was, yet again, back on
Broadway—in Dirty Blonde, a play celebrating her life and her fans.2
316
REALLY A PROLOGUE 317
The sustained and growing interest in Mae West so many years after her
death indicates that, for many Americans, she has continued to fulfill some
fundamental needs (and desires). Some sectors have elevated Mae West to the
status of feminist icon. Others,' celebratingOher connections to the gayO J
commu-
nity, have proclaimed her the queen of camp. When Mae West's posthumous
comeback commenced in the 19805, it coincided with a rising resistance to a
climate of political and social conservatism. For many, she represented the an-
tithesis of conservative trends, a hero for American masses. She was unique
and had created a distinctive subversive persona that many related to and ad-
mired. "There is no other Mae West," observed journalist Steven Roberts be-
fore her death. "She is an institution, a living legend, as much a part of
American folklore as Paul Bunyan or Tom Sawyer or Babe Ruth."3
Ascendingtoto the status of a folk heroine/hero,' Mae West,' born of turn-
of-the-twentieth-century paradoxes, became a beacon to those confronting
the contradictions at the turn of the twenty-first century. She was more
than, as one critic aptly characterized her, "a true sexual democrat" and, as
many alleged, a singleminded profiteer. While she was unabashedly com-
mercially driven, she also provided, and continues to provide, her audiences
with stinging critiques of American society. As Mae West simultaneously
embraced and rejected the dominant culture, her life, image, and perfor-
mance became (and remain) a site for the reflection on, dialogue over, and
resolution of the major tensions confronting Americans.4
It is Mae West's ability to oscillate between chaos and calm, as a trickster
breathing order into disorder, that allows her voice to resonate throughout the
years, giving her a timeless nature. As the trickster, she refused (and refuses) to
claim a single identity; determined to create as much confusion as possible, she
rejected and represented all extremes. Through her immersion in African-
American signifying, Mae West reminds us that all polarities are really con-
structions of a society that operates to promote and preserve the status quo. By
rejecting the divisions between black and white, man and woman, rich and
poor, and self and other, she continues to challenge a society that thrives on fix-
ity and certainties. She fits snugly into Russian writer Mikhail Bakhtin's con-
tention that trickster figures fight for "the right to be 'other' in this world, the
right not to make common cause with any single one of the existing categories
that life makes available, none of these categories quite suits them, they see the
underside and the falseness of every situation." In a way, West's paradox rested
on a single question she posed over and over again: "Why does it have to be this or
that?" It is a question that, while unsettling, is also comforting and empowering.5
Like all tricksters who represent the weak, disenfranchised, and op-
pressed, she triumphed (and continues to triumph) not through strength,
318 M A E * WEST
power, and position but rather by her cunning, wit, and guile. She defied cat-
egorization, constantly transfigured and transfiguring, remaining perpetually
unfixed and destabilized. At a dizzying pace, she disrupted the status quo,
then reestablished order, only to create chaos once again. "The best way to
behave," she advised, "is to misbehave."6
Like many tricksters, West also embraced the qualities of a shapeshifter,
remaining indeterminate in her physical form, forever changeable. To an on-
screen beau attempting to woo her with the old cliche "I've been places and
seen things," she rumbled back, "I've been things and seen places." Yet there
was an immutability in her mutability. As Steven Roberts observed, "Some-
times she was like mirrors in a barbershop: an almost infinite number of im-
ages, each reflecting the other, Mae West playing Mae West playing Mae
West." At one level, he discerned her links to the topsy-turvy world of
African-American tricksterism and signification. Mae West's world is even
more like a carnival funhouse's Hall of Mirrors, and now her image is re-
flected everywhere. But most important, the subtext of that image, rooted
in black traditions,' demonstrates that degree
o
to which American cultural
roots are African. Mae West was and is a cultural agent that celebrates and
perpetuates the African presence within American society.7
There lies Mae West's appeal; she functioned and continues to function as
the American trickster-hero that now connects three centuries. Her audi-
ences revel in her ability to speak the unspeakable and her crafty manipula-
tion of the dualities of existence. For Americans of the Great Depression of
the 19305, when her mass appeal was first established, she provided hope
that they too, despite their uncertain status, could triumph over hardships
and dire conditions. And regardless of the shifts in American circumstances,
O '
her appeal remains basically the same. She speaks across the decades and
now centuries, an empowering and reassuring presence. We continue to be
drawn to her special talent of reflecting and mocking our norms, expecta-
tions, and anxieties. She urges us to think about who we were, who we are,
and who we are ogoing o
to be.
"There is no Mae West," once claimed a close associate. "It doesn't make
any difference how often you see her or how much you talk to her, you never
know her because, I tell you—there is no Mae West!" He was probably
right. There probably never was a Mae West; rather there were and are Mae
Wests. She can only be understood as the creator of converging and diverg-
J o O o
ing figures, swaying through a hallway of mirrors. Her life story is a trick-
ster's tale, the continuing and whirling evolution of three selves—a private
person, a star, and a fictional character—the complex and intertwining per-
sonas that composed Mae West.8
Sources
Archival Sources and Abbreviations
The sole collection of West's writings is in the Manuscript Division, Library of

Congress, Washington, D.C (LC), which contains drafts of most of her plays. The
largest depository of materials on West is located at Margaret Herrick Library,
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which houses the Para-
mount Collection (including her scripts, pressbooks, clipping files, and budget re-
ports for her Paramount films), a biography file (MW/BF), the Sidney Skolsky
Collection (SSC), and the Production Code Administration Censorship Files
(PCA). Other archives that have information include Mae West Clipping File,
British Film Institute, London, England (BFI); J. Walter Thompson Company Col-
lection, Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History, Special Col-
lections, Duke University (Duke); The Will Hays Papers, edited by Douglas Gomery
(Frederick: University Publications of America, 1988), microfilmed from collec-
tion at Indiana State Historical Society (Hays Papers); Special Collections, Theater
Arts Library, Harvard University (HU); Municipal Archives, New York City (MA-
NYC); Special Collections, Music Library, University of California, Los Angeles
(ML); Mae West Clipping File (MW/MAD) and John Sumner Papers (Sumner Pa-
pers), State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison; Billy Rose Theater Collec-
tion, Performing Arts Research Center, New York Public Library, New York City
(Rose); Stanley Musgrove Collection (SMC) in Archives of Performing Arts, Uni-
versity of Southern California; Shubert Archives, New York, New York (SA);
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C; Special Collections, Boston University;
Special Collections, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa (UI); G. Robert Vincent
Voice Library, Michigan State University (VL MSU).
Other Source Abbreviations
EC: Birth Certificate

Census: United States Census, Population Schedules, Washington, D.C.
CF: Clipping File
319
320 SOURCES
Clipper: New York Clipper

DeC: Death Certificate
Examiner: Los Angeles Examiner
FBI: Mae West File, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Graphic: New York Evening Graphic
Lain's: Loin's Brooklyn City Directory
LAT: Los Angeles Times
News: New York Daily News
NYHT: New York Herald Tribune
NYT: New York Times
Lie.: Marriage License
MW: Mae West
Trow's: Trow's New York City Directory
VR: Variety
UCD: Uppington's Brooklyn City Directory
Notes
Chapter One
1. John Kobal, People Will Talk (New York: Knopf, 1985), 1^3; "Mae: The Star
That Will Not Dim!" Rona Barrett's Hollywood, November 1970, 79; Rona's Reports
Script, September i £ , 1970, SMC; Gerald Early, "Understanding Afrocentrism,"
Civilization (July—August 199^): 31—39.
2. DeC, Mae West, November 2 2 , 1980, Los Angeles, California; Trows, l86j,
1072; DeC, John West, November 12, 1906, Brooklyn, New York, MA-NYC; De-
nis Hart, "Diamond Mae," Daily Telegraph, August 2 1 , 1970, BFI; Census l8jO, New
York City, 1880, 1900, Brooklyn, New York; Michael Cohn and Michael K. H.
Platzer, Black Men of the Sea (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1978), 60; W. Jeffrey Bolster,
Blackjacks: African-American Seamen in the Age of Sail (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1997), 177—179; Mae West, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It: The Autobiog-
raphy of Mae West (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 19^9), 2; Celeste Terrell Barn-
hill, Joseph West and Mary Jane Owen (Greenfield: Mitchell Printing, 1930).
3. Hart, "Diamond Mae"; John West, November i £ , 1906, Mary Jane West, Au-
gust 26, 1909, Emma West, June 16, 1883, Interment Records, Linden Hill
Methodist Cemetery, Ridgewood, New York; Census, l8jO, New York City, 1900,
Brooklyn, New York; DeC, Edith [West] Elmore, June 2 2 , 1894, DeC, Mary Jane
West, August 22, 1909, Brooklyn, New York, MA-NYC; Iain's, 1863—64, 94;
1864-65, 86.
4. Luc Sante, Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (New York: Farrar, Straus
& Giroux, 1991), 197; Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of
the Underworld (1927; reprint New York: Capricorn Books, 1970), 174, 2 3 2 — 2 3 9 ;
Census, l8jO, New York City, 7900, Brooklyn, 1920, Queens, New York; West,
Goodness, 2; Ernest A. McKay, The Civil War and New York City (Syracuse: Syracuse
University Press, 1990), 296. John Edwin West fails to appear in the 1890 U.S.
Census of Civil War Veterans. Trow's, i86j, 1072.
£. West, Goodness, 3; Richard Meryman,"Mae West"Life, April 18, 1969, 69.
6. David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American
Working Class (London: Verso, 1991), 133—137; Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became
White (New York: Routledge, 199^), 34—61.
321
322 N O T E S TO PAGES 6—IO
7. Lain's, 1874, 8 1 2 , 1882—83, 1 2 2 0 ; Census, l8jO, 1880, Brooklyn, New York;

DeC, John West, November 12, 1906, DeC, Emma West, June i £ , 1883, Brook-
lyn, New York, MA-NYC; West, Goodness, 3; William L. Felter, Historic Green Point
(Greenpoint: Green Point Savings Bank, c. 1919), 18, 28—33; Sanbourne Fire Insur-
ance Map, i 887, vol. 9, p. 99.
8. West, Goodness, 2—3; Charles Samuels and Louise Samuels, Once Upon a Stage:
The Merry World of Vaudeville (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974), 102; LAT, August 2^,
'934"
9. Son of Phillip and Christiana, Jacob Delker was born in July 183^ in Ger-
many. Christiana was born in October 1838, also in Germany. Variations of her
maiden name include Breuning and Bruner. Census, 1900, Brooklyn, New York;
DeC, Jacob Delker, September 20, 1902, DeC, Matilda West, January 26, 1930,
Lie, Carl Delker and Mathilde Misdorn, May 26, 1889, Lie, John West and Tillie
Delker, January 9, 1889, DeC, Christiana Delker, October i£, 1901, all Brooklyn,
New York, all MA-NYC; West, Goodness, 3.
10. Ruth Biery, "The Private Life of Mae West: Part Two,"Mo vie Classic, February
1934, 2 i; Clipping, May 27, 193^, Scrapbook #£, SSC; George Eels and Stanley
Musgrove, Mae West: A Biography (New York: William Morrow, 1982), 2 1 — 2 2 ;
Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American
Life (New York: Harper Perennial, 1990), 146—1^7, 2 2 3 — 2 2 7 ; West, Goodness, 3;
Will Anderson, The Breweries of Brooklyn (Croton Falls: Anderson, 1976), 41—43;
Loin's, 1886—87, 267, 1891—92, i £ 2 , 1892—93, 8 9 2 ; Census, 1900, Brooklyn, New
York; Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to
1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 823—824; Sanbourne Fire Insur-
ance Map, 188j, vol. 9, pp. 8, 94; Hugo Ullitz, Atlas of the Borough of Brooklyn, City of
New York (Brooklyn: E. Belcehr Hyde, 1904), vol. 3, p. 23.
i i. West, Goodness, 6; Kobal, People, 161; VR, June 9, 1 9 2 2 ; Meryman, "Mae
West," 69; Daniels, Coming to America, i £ o — i S S -
i 2. Ruth Biery, "The Private Life of Mae West: Part One," Movie Classic, January
1934, in Carol Ward, Mae West: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport: Greenwood Press,
1989), 106; Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-
Century New York (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986), 1—33; Christine
Stansell, City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, Ij8g—l86o (Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 1987), i 23—1 26, 179—180; West, Goodness, 6.
i 3. Bert Prelutsky, "Going Up to See Mae West," International Herald Tribune,
July 29, 1968, BFI; West, Goodness, 2—3.
14. Tyra Samter Winslow, "Diamond Mae," New Yorker, November 10, 1928, 27;
Aileen St. John Brenon, "The Real Mae West," New Movie Magazine, c. 1934,
MW/MAD; West, Goodness, 2-3, 6, 16-18, 108; Biery, "Part Two," 2o-2i, 70.
i £ . Meryman, "Mae West," 69; Lie, John West and Tillie Delker, January 9,
1889, BC, Katie West, August 23, 1891, DeC, Katie West, October 30, 1891,
NOTES TO PAGES IO—16 323
DeC, John West, November 1 2 , 1 9 0 6 , all Brooklyn, New York, all MA-NYC; Char-
lotte Chandler, The Ultimate Seduction (New York: Doubleday, 1984), 47. Stanley
Musgrove kept a log while working for West. See Musgrove Log, August £, 197^,
SMC; Prelutsky, "Going Up."
16. Mae explained that she changed the original spelling: "I didn't like that 'y'
hanging below the line." Chandler, Ultimate, 47, 49, £ 2 ; Lain's, 1893—94, 1362; Cen-
sus, 1900, Brooklyn, New York; Musgrove Log, August 2 i , 1969, SMC.
17. West, Goodness, vi, 4—6; Boston Herald, April 30, 1934, MW/CF, HU; Biery,
"Part One," 106—108; News, February 2 1 , 1933.
1 8. Meryman, "Mae West," 69; "Because Mae West Isn't Diamond Lil," c. 1934,
MW/MAD; West, Goodness, 5—6; News, February 2 1 , 2 2 , 1933.
19. Biery, "Part One," 108; Meryman, "Mae West," 69, 72; West, Goodness, 3-11,
16—18, 163—164; Elza Schallert, "Go West," Motion Picture, May 1933, 84. The
Wests moved from Willoughby to Bleecker (1894), Driggs (189^), Humbolt
(1897), and Conselyea (1900); Lain's, 1893—94, 1 3 6 2 , 1894—95, 143^, 1895—96,
146^, 1897—98, 1660, 1898—99, 1829; Hart, "Diamond Mae"; Census, 1900, Brook-
lyn, New York; Clipping, April 14, 1930, Scrapbook #4, SSC; Sante, Low Life, 2 2 0 .
20. Biery, "Part One," 106—107; West, Goodness, 6, 7, 2 i — 2 2 ; BC, Mildreth [Mil-
dred] Katharina West, December 8, 1898; BC, John Edwin West, February i i ,
1900, Brooklyn, New York, MA-NYC.
2 1 . West, Goodness, 4, 1 2 — 1 3 , J 8 — 1 9 , 2 6 — 2 7 ; Biery, "Part One," 106—108;
Robert Johnson, "Mae West: Snow White Sex Queen Who Drifted,"Jet, July 2 ^ ,
1974,40—48; News, February 2 1 , 1933.
2 2 . Eric Ledell Smith, Bert Williams: A Biography of the Pioneer Black Comedian (Jef-
ferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1992), 24—39.
23. Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Lit-
erary Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 29—^6.
24. Ann Charters, Nobody: The Story of Bert Williams (New York: Macmillan,
1
97°), l 35', Mel Watkins, On the Real Side: Laughing, Lying, and Signifying— The Un-
derground Tradition of African-American Humor That Transformed Culture, from Slavery to
Richard Pryor (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 143, 1^7—194.
2£. Watkins, Real Side, 76, 160—161, 298; West, Goodness, 14; Mae West, The Wit
and Wisdom of Mae West, ed. Joseph Weintraub (New York: Avon Books, 1967), 71.
26. Chandler, Ultimate, £ 2 — ^ 3 ; Smith, Williams, 16—17, 124—134, 139.
2 7. Johnson, "Snow White," 43.
28. George Haddad-Garcia, "Mae West, Everybody's Friend," Black Stars, April
1981, 62—64.
29. West, Goodness, i, 8—10; Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A His-
tory, 2d ed. (New York: Norton, 1983), 3 0 8 — 3 3 0 ; Kobal, People, 1^8; Clipping,
April 14, 1930, Scrapbook # i , SSC; Biery, "Part One," 106—108; Chandler, Ulti-
mate, £O—£1 .
324 NOTES TO PAGES 16—23
30. "Mae West Tells a Story: Her Own,"c. 1948, MW/CF, HU; West, Goodness,
7—14; Chandler, Ultimate, £; Robert W. Snyder, The Voice of the City: Vaudeville and
Popular Culture in New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 99—100.
3 i. "Isn't Diamond Lil"; West, Goodness, 8-13,26; Biery, "Part One," 108.
3 2. Jane R. Westerfield, An Investigation of the Life Styles and Performance of Three
Singer-Comediennes of American Vaudeville: Eva Tanguay, Nora Bayes, and Sophie Tucker
(Ph.D. dissertation, Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1988), 4—£6; Biery, "Part
Two," 2 o — 2 i , 70—71; Charters, Nobody, 89; Examiner, April 26, 193^; News, Febru-
ary 2 i , 1 9 3 3 .
33. West, Goodness, 10—11, 14.
34. News, February 2 2 , 1933; Andy Logan, Against the Evidence: The Becker-Rosen-
thal Affair (New York: McCall, 1970), 5-3, 60—64, 7£! Asbury, Gangs, 340—342;
NYT, July 19, 1912; Vina Delmar, The Becker Scandal:A Time Remembered (New York:
Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968), 4—20, 44—45-.
3£. Julia Shawell,"Mae West Curves Herself a Career" Pictorial Review, February
1934, MW/MAD; West, Goodness, 1 3 — 2 1 ; News, February 22, 1933; Tom Baily,
"The Life Story of Mae West," Paramount Studios, c. 1933, BFI.
36. "Mae West Says, 'I Have Loved, But . . . , ' " Sunday Dispatch, January 13,
193^, BFI; News, February 22, 1933; New York Dramatic Mirror, February 16, 1907;
Brooklyn Eagle, May i, 1904; West, Goodness, 13—16.
37. Edith Head and Jane Kesner Ardmore, The Dress Doctor (Boston: Little,
Brown, 19^9), £2; West, Goodness, i$—16.
38. "Isn't Diamond Lil."
39. West, Goodness, 14—16; Edward William Mamman, The Old Stock Company
School of Acting: A Study of the Boston Museum (Boston: Trustees of the Public Library,
194^), ^4—63; Baily, "The Life Story"; Shawell, "Mae West Curves"; News, February
22
> 193 3 5 Biery, "Part One," i o8.
40. "Me and My Past," Delaware Star, September 9, 193^, BFI; Faye Dudden,
Women in the American Theatre: Actresses and Audiences, IJtyO—lSjO (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1994), 6, £7—70.
41. West, Goodness, 14—16; 26; Jeremy P. Felt, Hostages of Fortune: Child Labor Re-
form in New York State (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 196^), 8, ^7, 97—99.
42. Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, Ned Wayburn and the Dance Routine: From Vaudeville
to Ziegfeld Follies (Madison: Society of Dance Scholars, 1996), 6—11; VR, September
9, 1942; West, Goodness, 16; Biery, "Part Two," 20—2 i, 70; Kobal, People, 162; John-
son, "Snow White ,"44.
43. Susan Gubar, Racechanges: White Skin, Black Face in American Culture (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 3—7; Roediger, Wages, 123— 1 2 ^ ; West,
Goodness, 19; Sophie Tucker and Dorothy Giles, Some of These Days: The Autobiography
of Sophie Tucker (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran, 194^), 33—3£; Janet Brown, "The
'Coon-Singer' and the 'Coon Song': A Case Study of the Performer-Character Re-
NOTES TO PAGES 2 3 — 3! 325
lationship," Journal of American Culture 7 (Spring/Summer 1984): i—8; "Me and My

Past"; David Keane, Press Release, Paramount, c. 193^, MW/BF.
44. West, Goodness, 19.
4£. West, Goodness, 16; Brenon,"Real Mae."
46. Kobal, People, 161 — 162.
47. Biery, "Part Two," 20—2 i , 70—7 i; Chandler, Ultimate, 44; Karl Fleming and
Anne Taylor Fleming, The First Time (New York: Simon & Schuster, 197^),
312-316.
48. Mae West, Sex, Health, and ESP (London: Allen, 197^), 8—9; Musgrove Log,
August 16, 1969, SMC; Chandler, Ultimate, 43.
49. West, Goodness, 3, 16—i 8; Maurice Leonard, Empress of Sex (New York: Birch
Lane Press, 1991), 18—19.
ô. Meryman, "Mae West," 69; DeC, Julia [West] Weeks, December 24, i 893,
Brooklyn, New York, DeC, Edith Elmore, Christiana Delker, Jacob Delker, John
West [1906], Mary Jane West (see notes 2 , 3 , and 9 above), MA-NYC; Census, 1910,
Brooklyn, New York.
^ i. Ned Williams, "The Men in Mae West's Life," Hollywood, June 1934, BFI;
Biery, "Part Two," 2 0 — 2 1 , 70.
£ 2. New York Post, July 4, 1970.
^3. West, Goodness, 2 2 .
Chapter Two
1. West, Goodness, 2 i — 2 ^ ; VR, July 7, 1917; Shirley Staples, Male-Female Comedy

Teams in American Vaudeville, 1865—1932 (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1984),
99—101, 1 2 2 — 1 2 4 , 143—148; Examiner, April 2£, 193^; Chandler, Ultimate, 51, ^7.
2. Biery, "Part Two," 70.
3. Robert C. Allen, Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 19^1), 197—240, 282—284.
4. Examiner, April 24, 1935; West, Goodness, 26—27; Los Angeles Daily News, No-
vember 28, 1936, MW/BF.
£. VR, September 30, 1911; Examiner, April 23, 24, 1935; Clipper, August 19,
1911; Census, 1910, Brooklyn, New York; Irving Zeidman, The American Burlesque
Show (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967), 11 — 13, £2—^6.
6. Examiner, April 23, 193^; Clipper, June 3, September 2, 1911.
7. Brenon, "Real Mae"; West, Goodness, 28.
8. West,^ Goodness,J 28;t Fleming£, and Fleming,
£•>> First Time,J 317.
J f
9. I'm No Angel (1933); West, Goodness, 28—29; Examiner, April 24, 193^; Kobal,
People, 162—163; Lie, Frank Wallace and Mae West, April 11, 1911, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin; Fleming and Fleming, First Time, 3 1 2 — 3 1 7 ; Musgrove Log, June £,
1975 , SMC; David B. Charny, "Mae's 'Husband' Describes the Day They Married,"
Daily Mirror, Robinson Locke Scrapbooks, Rose; Time, July 19, 1937, 62.
10. West, Goodness, 28—31; New York Sun, April 23, 193^, MW/CF, HU; Time,
July 19, 1 9 3 7 , 6 2 .
11. Clipping, October i, 1933, MW/BF.
i 2. Charles Higham, Ziegfeld (Chicago: Regnery, 1972), 8^—86; West, Goodness,
30—31; Lewis Erenberg, Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of
American Culture, 1890—1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 137.
13. NYT, September 23, 1911; Clipper, September 23, 1911; West, Goodness,
32—36; Frank Condon, "Come Up and Meet Mae West," Collier's, June 16, 1934,
26,42.
14. West, Goodness, 33—36; Biery, "Part Two," 70; NYT, September 23, 1911.
i ^ . Clipper, November i i , December 2, 1911; VR, October 7, November 2^,
1911; West, Goodness, 3^—37; James Gardiner, Gaby Deslys: A Fatal Attraction (Lon-
don: Sedgewick & Jackson, 1986), 30—^6; Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton Sr., The Book
of Beauty (London: Duckworth, 1930), 22—24.
16. New Haven Morning Journal-Courier, November 18, 2o, 1911; New Haven
Evening Register, November 17, 18, 1911.
17. New Haven Morning Journal-Courier, November 2o, 22, 1911; New Haven
Evening Register, November 2o, 1911; Musgrove Log, August 21, 1969, SMC; LAT,
August 31, 1969.
1 8. New Haven Morning Journal-Courier, November 20—24, 1911; VR, November
2 £, 1911, March 9, 1912; New Haven Evening Register, November 20, 1911.
19. Gardiner, Gaby Deslys, ^8, 62—63; ^> November 2£, 1911; West, Goodness,
37; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 44.
20. West, Goodness, 37—44; VR, March 9, 23, 1912; New Haven Morning Journal-
Courier, February 24, 27, 1912; Staples, Male-Female, ^9, 121.
21. West, Goodness, 41—44; News, April i£, 1938.
22. Clipper, April 20, 1912; NYT, April 12, 1912; VR, April 20, 1912; New York
Dramatic Mirror, April 17, 1912.
23. VR, May 2£, April 20, 1912, March 13, 1914.
24. VR, May 18, 2^, 1912; West, Goodness, 44; Clipper, May 2^, 1912; Billboard,
June i , 1912.
2£. John Kobal, Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance: A History of Movie Musicals (New York:
Exeter Books, 1983), 16^; Marshall Sterns and Jean Sterns, Jazz Dance: The Story of
American Vernacular Dance, 2d ed. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), 104—12^;
Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance
and Other Contexts (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996), xiv, 1—2, 81— 8$.
2 6. West, Goodness, 44—4 £; VR, July 2 6, December 13, 1912, January 3, 1913;
Manager's Report, December 30, 1912, Union Square Theater, New York City,
Keith-Albee Records, UI.
NOTES TO PAGES 40—46 327
27. Dana Rush, "Back of the West Front," Photoplay, February 1934, 60,
109—110; Charles Stein, American Vaudeville Seen by Its Contemporaries (New York:
Knopf, 1984), i £ 2 ; West, Goodness, 43—44; VR, March 13, 1914; Meryman, "Mae
West," 69.
28. Manager's Reports, November 3, 1913, Columbus, Ohio, November 10,
1913, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Keith-Albee Records, UI; Detroit News, August 26,
1913; San Antonio Light, September 11, 1914; VR, March 13, 1914; West, Goodness,
47—48; John E. DiMelgio, Vaudeville U.S.A.(Bowling Green: Bowling Green Univer-
sity Popular Press, 1973), 87—9^; "Route Lists," Clipper, February—December 1913;
Winslow, "Diamond Mae," 26; Michael McDonald Mooney, Evelyn Nesbitt and Stanford
White-.Love and Death in the Gilded Age (New York: Morrow, 1976), 206—207.
29. Manager's Reports, November 3, 1913, Columbus, Ohio, November 10,
1913, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Keith-Albee Records, UI; VR, March 9, Decem-
ber 13, 1912; New York Morning Telegraph, October i , 1913, Robinson Locke Scrap-
books, Rose.
30. Clipper, October 4, 1913,6; VR, October 3, 1913; Manager's Report, No-
vember 3, 1913, Columbus, Ohio, Keith-Albee Records, UI; West, Goodness, 49.
31. Manager's Report, November 10, 1913, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Keith—Albee Records, UI; New York Morning Telegraph, October 11, 1913, Robinson
Locke Scrapbooks, Rose; Sterns and Sterns, Jazz Dance, 2 10; New York Tribune, Au-
gust s, 1913; San Antonio Light, September 8, 1914.
32. San Antonio Light, September 6, 1914; Examiner, April 24, 1935; Clipper, Oc-
tober 4,1913.
3 3. Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 40—41.
34. Detroit News, August 24, 26, 1913; Clipper, August 23, 1913, 2 2 ; Accordion
News, August 193^; West, Goodness, £2—^4.
3£. Biery, "Part Two," 70—71; Examiner, April 24, 193^; Nils Thor Granlund,
Blondes, Brunettes, and Bullets (New York: McKay, 19^7), 43; Joe Laurie Jr., Vaudeville:
From Honky-Tonks to the Palace (New York: Holt, 19^3), 69; VR, February 20, 2^,
1914; West, Goodness, £2—60.
36. Clipper, January 9, 191 £; West, Goodness, ^4—60; Biery, 'Part Two," 70—71;
VR, December 2^, 1914, January 9, 191£.
37. VR, August 2o, 191 £; "Route Lists," Clipper, April—September 191 £.
38. VR, March 17, June 2, 1916; Clipper, January 8, March 18, 1916; Snyder,
Voice, 76—77; Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies,
2d ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 33—86; Pittsburgh Leader, April 9, 1916;
Laurie, Honky-Tonks, 2 ^ 2 , 2 7 1 — 2 7 2 .
39. West, Goodness, £4—61; Biery, "Part Two," 70—71.
40. Accordion News, August 1935.
41. VR, July 7, 1916; West, Goodness, 45—46; Musgrove Log, October 9, 1969,
SMC; "Mae West Story," Revival of America, April 1976, SMC.
328 N O T E S TO PAGES 47-55
42. Musgrove Log, October 9, 1969, SMC; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West,
37—38; VR, November 16, 1916.
43. West, Goodness, 60—6 2; Biery, "Part Two," 70—71.
44. West, Goodness, 61—64, 66—67; Allan H. Spear, Black Chicago: The Making of a
Negro Ghetto, 1890—1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), 1 2 9 — 2 0 1 ;
LAT, July 2, 1970.
4£. West, Goodness, 63; Houston Baker, Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature:
A Vernacular Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 4—7.
46. West, Goodness, 64; Johnson, "Snow White," 44; William Howland Kenney,
Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 9—11,
£4; Sterns and Sterns, Jazz Dance, i 2, 104—114, 235-; Malcolm Oettinger, "Literary
Lil,"Picture Play, September 1933, 26, 62.
47. West, Goodness, 64; Sterns and Sterns, Jazz Dance, 23^.
Chapter Three
1. West, Goodness, 6; VR, June 6, 1919; "While the Men," MW/MAD; Kirtley
Baskette, "Has Mae West Gone High Hat?" Photoplay, July 1934, 39.
2. West, Goodness, 63; Lie, Mildred West and Serge Treshatny, January 29, 1917,
Brooklyn, New York, MA-NYC; NYT, April 16, 1927; VR, May 4, 1917, April 7,
19^4; UCD, 1905, 1004, ^906, 1086; Clipper, October 14, 1916; Brenon,"Real
Mae"; Schallert, "Go West," 33; "Mae Takes a Day Off," James Timony CF, Rose.
3. New York American, June 30, 193^, Robinson Locke Scrapbook, Rose; LAT, July
22, 1942; Time, July 19, 1937, 63.
4. New York Dramatic Mirror, October 19, 1918; NYHT, October 5, 1918; Clipper,
October 9, 1918; VR, October 11, 1918; Leonard Hall, "Look Out! Here's Mae
West!" Photoplay, January 193 3, 46, i o8.
5. West, Goodness, 6^—66; Sterns and Sterns,Jazz Dance, 190, 2 10, 2 3 2 .
6. "Everybody Shimmies Now" (New York: Charles K. Harris, 1918), ML; West,
Goodness, 65; Meryman,"Mae West," 72.
7. "Mae West Says 'I Have Loved, But. . . . ' " Sunday Dispatch, January 13, 1935,
and "Me and My Past," Delaware Star, September 9, 1934, BFI.
8. NYT, September iS, 1931; "Maid Tipped Her Off," c. 1934, MW/MAD;
News, April 15, 1938.
9. Theatre Magazine, February 1919, 97; Clipper, December i i, 1918.
10. VR, September 19, 1919; New York Dramatic Mirror, September 18, 2£, 1919.
11. Clipper, September 17, 1919; "Here and There," Graphic, October 23, 1931,
Constant Sinner/CF, SA; VR, December 13, 1918, August 13, 1920.
i 2. New York Dramatic Mirror, November 6, December 2 5, 1919; VR, October 3 i ,
1919; Jerry Stagg, The Brothers Shubert (New York: Random House, 1968),
184-186.
NOTES TO PAGES ££ — 6 6 329
13. Clipper, August 11, 1920; VR, August 22, 1913, August 13, 1920.
14. Census,1920, Queens, New York; Shawell, "Mae West Curves," 3 1 ; NYT,
April 16, 1927; VR, February 9, 1927.
1 £. VR, March i i , 1921, April 2 2 , 1 9 2 1 ; Clipper, February 9, 1 9 2 1 ; Washington
Post, March 6, 1921.
16. Clipper, August 24, 1921; VR, August 26, 1921; Jon Tuska, The Complete Films
of Mae West (New York: Citadel, 1972), 2 7 — 2 8 ; Theatre Magazine, November 1921,
308; Harold Atteridge, James Hussey, and Owen Murphy, The Whirl of the Town/The
Mimic World, script; The Mimic World/CF, SA.
17. Mae West, The Ruby Ring, April i , 1 9 2 1 , LC; Meryman, "Mae West," 66.
18. West, Ruby Ring, i 2, 16.
19. Harry Richman with Richard Gehman, Hell of a Life (New York: Duell, Sloan
& Pearce, 1966), 38—44, 93; Ruth Geri, "West of Broadway: A Reminiscence of
Mae's Early Days by Harry Richman "Hollywood, October 1934, BFI; Milton Berle,
"B.S."I Love You: Sixty Funny Years With the Famous and Infamous (New York: McGraw-
Hill, 1988), 24, 2 2 7 — 2 2 8 , 241; Musgrove Log, January 16, 197^, SMC.
20. Richman, Hell of a Life, 39—42; Clipper, July 12, 1922; VR, June 23, July 14,
1 9 2 2 ; Geri, "West of Broadway"; West, Goodness, 73—74; "Former Partner of Mae
West," "Mae Curves Pads," Scrapbook # i , Box 11, Harry Richman Papers, Special
Collections, Boston University.
2 i. News, August 13, 1922; West, Goodness, 74—7^; Program, Ginger Box Revue,
July 28, 29, 1 9 2 2 , Rose; VR, August 4, 1 9 2 2 ; Stamford Advocate, July 26, 1 9 2 7 ;
Southern, Music, 3^4; Geri, "West of Broadway."
2 2 . News, August 13, 14, 1 9 2 2 ; VR, August i i , September i , 1 9 2 2 ; Clipper, Au-
gust 16, 23, 1922.
2 3. Clipper, August 23, 1922; VR, September 8, 1922; Richman, Hell of a Life, 3 3—3 £.
24. West, Goodness, 72, 77; Mae West, The Hussy, 1922, LC.
2£. West, Hussy, I, i, 7—8.
26. Ibid., II, i, 34— 3£.
27. Ibid., I, ii, 22.
28. VR, January 19, 1923.
29. VR, April 26, 1923, 31; Clipper, April 25, 1923.
30. Richman, Hell of a Life, 34, 43—44; Granlund, Blondes, 90—91.
3 i. Mae West Non-Show Song File, ML; NYT Magazine, November 30, 1969.
32. VR, March £, 26, 1924; Lie Application, Mae West and R. A. "Bud" Burmeis-
ter, March 2 2 , 1924, Houston, Texas; San Antonio Light, March 23, 24, 1924; VR,
September 10, 1924.
3 3. Ned Williams, "The Men in Mae West's Life," Hollywood, June 1934, BFI; Ja-
coba Atlas, "Mae: Image From a Cracked Mirror: Part II," Los Angeles Free Press, June
2 1 , 1974; Chandler, Ultimate, 48.
34. NYT, October 30, 1926, April 17, 1927, April 18, 1929; NYHT, April 17,
19, 1929; VR, October 3, 1928, April 24, 1929; Kevin Thomas, "A Match Made in
330 NOTES TO PAGES 66 — 74
the Cotton Club: Mae West and Owney Madden's 'Hot Romance'," LAT Calendar,
December 23, 1984, 2.
3£. Graham Nown, English GodfatherR(London: Ward Lock, 1978), 16— 49,
^3—87; Asbury, Gangs, 344—3££; Thomas, "A Match," 2; Stanley Walker, Night Club
Era (New York: Stokes, 1933), 109—111, 240—242; Louise Berliner, Texas Guinan:
Queen of the Night Clubs (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993), 96—111.
36. Thomas, "A Match," 2; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, i oo—i o i ; David Lever-
ing Lewis, When Harlem Was in Vogue (New York: Vintage Books, 1982), 208—209;
Willie, "the Lion" Smith with George Hoeffer, Music on My Mind: The Memoirs of an
American Pianist (Garden City: Doubleday, 1964), 67, 13^—137, 172; Barry Singer,
Black and Blue: The Life and Lyrics of Andy Razaf (New York: Schirmer, 1992),
171-172.
37. Singer, Black and Blue, 2^7—2^8; Sterns and Sterns, Jazz Dance, 76, 147,
161—166,268—271.
3 8. Perry Bradford, Born With the Blues: Perry Bradford's Own Story (New York: Oak
Publications, 196^), 131 — 133; Clippings, February 2, April 4, 1930, Scrapbook
#i,SSC.
Chapter Four
1. "Interview With Mae West," Hollywood in the Thirties: Discussion and Question
Transcripts, December i , 1969, 6, AMPAS; Meryman, "Mae West," 66; West, Good-
ness, 77—78.
2. NYT, July 29, September 13, 1926, March 31, 1927; VR, August 4, 1926;
NYHT, March 18, 31, 1927; Meryman, "Mae West," 66; Musgrove Log, August 16,
1969, SMC.
3. NYT, January 26, July 17, 1926; Brooks Atkinson, Broadway (New York:
Macmillan, 1970), 249; West, Goodness, 78—82; NYHT, March 31, 1927; Thomas,
"A Match," 2; "Me and My Past."
4. Musgrove Log, November 18, 1969, SMC; Allen Churchill, The Theatrical
Twenties (New York: McGraw-Hill, 197^), 2 1 2 — 2 1 3 , 2 3 2 ; Edward Sammis, "The
Strange Career of Mae West's Kid Sister," Screenplay, December 1933, 20, BFI;
NYHT, March 31, 1927; West, Goodness, 8^—86; KR,June 30, 1926.
£. West, Goodness, 83—88; NYHT, March 31, 1927; "Interview With Mae West," 8—9.
6. News, February 24, 1933.
7. NYHT, April 27, 1926; "Another New Play," April 28, 1926, SEX/CF, HU;
VR, April 28, 1926; NYT, April 28, 1926; West, Goodness, 91.
8. "Discovering SEX" April 27, 1926, SEX/CF, HU; Mae West, Three Plays by
Mae West: SEX, The Drag, and The Pleasure Man, ed. Lillian Schlissel (New York: Rout-
ledge, 1997), 41.
NOTES TO PAGES 74—8 2 33!
9. West, Three Plays, 68, 70.

10. Ibid., 74, 90, 92.
11. NIT, April 27, 1926; New Ibr&er, May 8, 1926, 26; FR, April 28, 1926; "An-
other New Play."
12. Robert Benchley, "All About Sex" Life, May 2o, 1926, 20; KR, January 26,
1927; Zora Neale Hurston, "Characteristics of Negro Expression," in Negro: An An-
thology, ed. Nancy Cunard (1934; reprint New York: Ungar, 1970), 30—3 i .
i 3. Elizabeth Yeaman, "Mae West Ascends to Theaterdom's Elite," BFI; Ann
Douglas, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920$ (New York: Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, 1995), 38—41, 64.
14. West, Three Plays, 54—56; New York Morning Telegraph, February i , 1 9 2 7 ;
Peiss, Cheap Amusements, i 10— i i 3.
15. NYHT, January 23, 1927; West, Wit and Wisdom, 87; Graphic, December 20,
1926.
16. NYHT, January 23, 1927.
17. West, Three Plays, 55-59, 8£-86; "Discovering SEX"; VR, May 5, 1926.
1 8. West, Three Plays, 44—45.
19. Michael Taft, Blues Lyric Poetry: An Anthology (New York: Garland, 1983), 117.
20. Baker, Blues, j.
2 i . "Discovering SEX"; VR, February 2, 1927.
2 2 . John Sumner, "Padlock Drama," Theatre Magazine, May 1928, i i — i 2, 62.
NYSSV, Executive Secretary Reports, April 1926, January 1927, Box 2; Sumner,
Speech, February 2, 1929, Box 2; Author's League of America, "Program of the
Joint Committee Opposed to Political Censorship," c. 1 9 2 2 , Folder 10, Box 3;
Frederic F. Van De Water, "The Obscene Drama," Folder 4, Box 4; John Sumner,
"Autobiography Draft,"ms i , pp. 11 — 13, Box i ; all Sumner Papers. VR, June 9, Au-
gust 4, 1926, January 26, 1927; NYT, June 8, 1926; Percy Hammond, "Is There No
'Flit'?" Constant Sinner/CF, HU.
2 3 . New York Daily Mirror, April 30, 1926, SEX/CF, Rose; VR, February 9, 1927.
24. NYHT, January 2 3 , 1 9 2 7 , SEX/CF, HU; VR, May 5, 1926;"Discovering SEX."
15. George Walsh, Gentleman Jimmy Walker: Mayor of the Jazz Age (New York:
Praeger, 1974), 5 — 1 2 , 1 8 — 2 1 , 97, 11; Nown, English Godfather, 34, 91; Oliver E.
Allen, The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1993),
2 15—216, 2 2 7 — 2 3 0 , 236; Kaier Curtain, "We Can Always Call Them Bulgarians": The
Emergence of Lesbians and Gay Men on the American Stage (Boston: Alyson, 1987), 69—70.
26. Churchill, The Theatrical Twenties, 2 3 2 , 234; NYSSV Executive Secretary Re-
ports, October 1926, November 1926, Box 2, Sumner Papers.
27. NYT, April 28, 1 9 2 7 ; Nown, English Godfather, 68—70, 76; Berliner, Texas
Guinan, 109, 165, 182, 191; Whitney Bolton, "Critic Impressed by Mae West Role
of Siren at Seance," Philadelphia Inquirer, May 4, 1969; Lewis Yablowsky, George Raft
(London: Allen, 1975), 1—2, 15, 35—36, 240; Berle, "B.S.,"25, 241—243.
28. Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 6^; VR, December 29, 1926; Smith, Music on
My Mind, 137; West, Goodness, 91—92; C. Robert Jennings, "Mae West: A Candid
Conversation,"Playboy, January 1971, 76.
29. George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the
Gay World, 1890—1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994), 291—299, 304—321; West,
Goodness, 92; Curtain, We Can Always, 18.
30. NYHT, September 13, 1931, Constant Sinner/CF, SA; VR, January 12, 26,
1927.
31. VR, January s, 1927; NYSSV Executive Secretary Reports, January 1927,
Box 2, and Van De Water, "The Obscene Drama," Box 4, Sumner Papers.
32. West, ThreePlays, 97—100, 102, 116, 124; VR, January 26, February 2, 1927;
West, Goodness, 9$.
33. West, ThreePlays, 132—134, 139—140.
34. VR, February 2, 1927; West, Goodness, 9$; NYT, February i, 1927.
3£. VR, February 9, 1927; NYT, February 11, April 16, 1927.
36. New York Morning Telegraph, February i , 1927; VR, February 2, 1927;
Chauncey, Gay New York, 291—293.
37. VR, January 26, February 2, 1927; Curtain, We Can Always, 84—8^, 102;
Chauncey, Gay New York, 3 12—3 13.
38. Jack Hamilton, "Raquel Welch, Mae West: Talk About Men, Morals, and
Myra Breckenridge,"Looi, March 24, 1970, 48; West, Goodness, 94—95.
39. Jennings, "Mae West," 78; Chauncey, Gay New York, 286—290.
40. West, Three Plays, 1 1 8 , 1 3 3 ; Mae West, "Sex in the Theatre," Parade, Septem-
ber 1929, 13; Walker, Night Club, 101; Chauncey, Gay New York, 18^—187.
41. VR, February 2 , 9 , 1927; NYT, February i, 1927.
42. West, Goodness, 96—97; NYT, February 10, 17, 1927; Walsh, Gentleman
Jimmy, 42—47; VR, March 2, 1927; Allen, Tiger, 23^—2^4.
43. NYT, February 10—13, 1927; News, February 24, 1933; VR, March 2, 1927.
44. VR, March 16, February 2 2 , 1927; NYT, March 11, 1927.
4£. VR, March 16, 23, 30, 1927; NYT, March 2 1 , 1927.
46. VR, March 30, 1927; NYT, March 31, 1927; NYHT, March 30, 31, April 2,
1927; West, Three Plays, 2 16—2 i 8; Bruce Gould, " 'Sex' on Trial," New Republic,
April 2o, 1927, 246—248.
47. NYT, April i , 20, 1927; NYHT, March 30, 1927; VR, April 6, 1927; West,
Goodness, 97—98.
48. NYT, April i , 1927; NYHT, March 30, April 2, 1927.
49. "Clean Town,"c. 1927, and NYHT, April 2, 1927, S£*/CF, HU.
£o. NYT, April 6, 1927; VR, April 6, 13, 1927; NYHT, April 6, 1927.
Si. NYT, March 18, April 6, 20, 1927; VR, April 13, 20, 1927; NYHT, April 6,
1927.
NOTES TO PAGES 9 3 — 104 333
Chapter Five
1. Mae West, "Ten Days and Five Hundred Dollars: The Experiences of a Broad-
way Star in Jail," Liberty, August 2o, 1927, 53—$6; Samuel Roth, Stone Walls Do Not:
The Chronicle of a Captivity (New York: Faro, 1930),vol. i, pp. i 33—134; NYT, April
20, 2 1 , 28, 1927; Rush, "Back of the West," 110; Brenon, "Real Mae."
2. NYT, April 2 1 , 28, 1927; West, Goodness, 100.
3. West,"Ten Days,"^3—$5; Clippings, c. 1928, MW/MAD; News, February 24,
1937-
4. West, "Ten Days," 54.—55; Rush, "Back of the West," 11 o.
£. NYT, April 28, 1927; West, Goodness, 101 — 104; VR, November 9, 1927.
6. Mae West, The Wicked Age (1927), I, 3-4, II, III, 8, LC.
7. Stephen Rathburn, "The Wicked Age," MW/CF, HU; NYT, November s,
1927; VR, November 9, 1927; LAT, April 9, 1933.
8. VR, November 16, 23, 1927; NYT, November £, i£, 1927.
9. West, The Wicked Age, I, 4-5, 18.
10. Roth, Stone Walls, 2 1 , 1^7—160.
i i. VR, April i i , July 4, 1928; West, Goodness, 108—109; Douglas, Terrible Hon-
esty, 378—379, 48 i; Marie Beynon Ray, "Curves Ahead," Collier's, October 7, 1933,
40; NYT, April 2 2 , 1928; Theatre Magazine, September 1928, 30; Anonymous,
"Memo Typescript,"MW/Photograph File, HU; News, February 2^, 1933.
1 2 . "Memo Typescript"; "Concerning the Methods of Mae West," Diamond
Lil/CF, HU; Kobal, People, 166; VR, June 13, 1928.
13. Gilbert Seldes,"The Theatre," Dial, June 1928, £ 3 1 — ^ 3 2 ; West, Goodness,
11 o — 1 1 1 ; VR, April 11, 1928.
14. Mae West, Diamond Lil, I, £, i 3—14, SA; "The Underworld Sensation, Mae
West," Flyer, Diamond Lil Program File, HU; VR, July 4, 1928.
i£. West, Diamond Lil, I, 19-21, 27, SA.
16. Ibid.,11, 8, 13.
17. Ibid., II, 24, 28.
1 8. Ibid., Ill, j—10, 13, 17—19.
19. Richard Lockridge, "The Return of a Native in Diamond Lil," Diamond
Lil/CF, HU; NYT, April 10, 1928; VR, April n , 1928; NYHT, April 29, 1928; John
Mason Brown, "Valedictory to a Season," Theatre Magazine, June 1 9 2 8 , 393—394;
West, Goodness, 111 — 113, Berliner, Texas Guinan, i 29, 160.
20. Winslow, "Diamond Mae," 26—29; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, So; News,
February 2^, 1933.
2 i. West, Goodness, 111; VR, May 9, 1928.
2 2. VR, July 4, May 9, June 13, 27, July 18, August i, 1928; Charles O. Vander,
"Heard on Broadway," Theatre Magazine, September 1928, 30.
23. West, Goodness, 111; Richard Lockridge, "The Return of a Native," Diamond
Lil/CF, HU.
24. Brown,"Valedictory," 394; NYHT, April 29, 1928; NYT, April 10, i928;"Di-
amond Lil Opens," Diamond Lil/CF, HU; "Memo Typescript."
2,$-. West, Diamond Lil, I, 7, 13, 27, SA.
26. Mae West, Diamond Lil, I, 26-28, LC [earliest draft].
27. West, Diamond Lil, II, 3, 13, 27-28, SA.
28. Jordon appears to be a composite of Sullivan and John McGurk, the real
owner of Suicide Hall. Sante, Low Life, 1 1 9 — 1 2 0 ; Harold Zink, City Bosses in the
United States (Durham: Duke University Press, 1930), 8^—9^.
29. West, Diamond Lil, I, 16, SA.
30. West, Diamond Lil, I, 3 i, III, i j, LC; West, Goodness, 106.
3 i. Sheldon Brooks, "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone," (Chicago: Will
Rossiler, 1929), ML; "Diamond Lil Opens"; Angela Y. Davis, Blues Legacies and Black
Feminism: Gertrude "Ma"Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (New York: Pantheon
Books, 1998), 3—41; Hazel Carby, "It Jus Be's Dat Way Sometime: The Sexual Poli-
tics of Women's Blues," in Gender and Discourse: The Power of Talk (Norwood: Albex,
1988), 227—242.
32. West, Goodness, i 14—1 i^; Tristram Potter Coffin, The Female Hero in Folklore
and Legend (New York: Seabury Press, 197^), 169—173.
33. West, Diamond Lil, I, 20, HI, 14, SA.
34. VR, August 2 2 , 1928.
3£. West, Diamond Lil, I, 27, SA; Ashton Stevens, Actorviews (Chicago:
Covici—McGee, 1923), 113—11 8; George Davis, "The Decline of the West," Vanity
Fair, May 1934, 82; West, Three Plays, i 22.
36. Lemuel Fowler, "He May Be Your Man but He Comes to See Me Sometimes"
(Chicago: Ted Browne Music, 1922); Bradford, Born With the Blues, 131 — 132.
37. Stark Young, "Diamond Lil," New Republic, June 27, 1928, 14^—146.
38. Winslow, "Diamond Mae," 26—29; West, Goodness, 115.
39. VR, August 29, 1928; West, Goodness, 116— 11 8, 1 2 ^ — 1 2 7 ; West, Three Plays,
224, 231.
40. VR, September 19, 1928; "Pleasure Man Ends Wales Act Reign of Terror," Eq-
uity, April 1930, 9—10, Pleasure Man/CF, HU.
41. West, Three Plays, 14^—170, 183—18^, 2oo.
42. VR, October 10, 1928; Curtain, We Can Always, 132; Jeffrey Amherst, Wan-
dering Abroad: The Autobiography of Jeffrey Amherst (London: Seeker & Warburg,
1976), 82; NYT, October 2, 1928; "Pleasure Man Ends Wales Act Reign of Terror."
43. Gilbert Gabriel, "Last Night's First Night," October 2, 1928, Pleasure
Man/CF, HU; NYT, October 2, 3, 1928, June 7, 1936; VR, October 3, 10, 1928.
44. Curtain, We Can Always, 136; NYT, October 4, £, 1928; News, October 4,
1928.
N O T E S T O P A G E S 114—121 335
4£. VR, October 10, 1928.

46. NYT, October £, 6, 19, 1928; NYSSV, Executive Secretary Reports, October
28, 1928, Box 2, Sumner Papers; "West Is Indicted," October £, 1928, "The Prose-
cutor's Case," March 24, 1930, Pleasure Man/CF, HU.
47. West, Sex, Health, and ESP, 39; DeC, Matilda West, January 26, 1930, Brook-
lyn, New York, MA-NYC; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 90.
48. VR, October 3, December 19, 1928, April 24, 1929; NYT, April 17, 18, 2 1 ,
1929; NYHT, April 17, 19, 1929.
49. VR, January 23, May i , 1929; West, Goodness, 133—134;; West, Sex, Health,
and ESP, 1 1 4— 117.
ô. VR, June i 2, 19, 26, 1929; Detroit News, June 3, £, 6—9, 1929.
51. West, "Sex in the Theatre," 1 2 — 1 3 , 3 2 ; Gerald Weales, Canned Goods as
Caviar: American Film Comedy of the 1930$ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1985).50-51
£ 2 . "Mae West as Teacher" Outlook and Independent, September 1 1, 1929, $$; VR,
July 3, 1929.
£3. LAT, December 23, 1929; VR, October 30, December 4, 1929, January i ,
i$, 1930; West, Goodness, 141 — 142; West, "Sex in the Theatre," 13.
£4. Resume, Jason Joy, January 1 1 , 1930, J.V.W. to Joy, April 22, 1930, Hays to
Joy, April 2 2 , 1930, She Done Him Wrong, PCA.
££. West, Goodness, 142; NYHT, February i , 1930; DeC, Matilda West (see note
47 above); Brooklyn Eagle, January 27, 1930.
Chapter Six
1. West, Goodness, 142—143; DeC, Matilda West (see chapter £, note 47); Brook-
lyn Eagle, January 27, 1930; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 91; Bernard Sobel, Broad-
way Heartbeat: Memoirs of a Press Agent (New York: Hermitage House, 1953), 266;
Brenon, "Real Mae."
2. NYT, January 14, February 6, March 18, 19, 20, 1930.
3. NYT, March 20, 2 1 , 22, 1930; "Prosecution's Case," March 24, 1930, Pleasure
Man/CF, HU; West, Three Plays, 237.
4. NYT, March 22, 2£, 27, 29, 1930; "Captain Coy," March 22, 1930, and "The
Prosecution's Case," March 24, 1930, Pleasure Man/CF, HU.
£. NYT, March 29, 1930.
6. NYT, April i, 2, 1930; West, Three Plays, 2 3 8 .
7. "Mae West Fails to Testify," April 2, 1930, Pleasure Man/CF, HU; Berliner,
Texas Guinan, 16^.
8. NYT, April 4, ^, 16, 1930; "Pleasure Man Ends Wales Act Reign of Terror";
West, Goodness, 129.
336 NOTES TO PAGES 1 2 2 — 135
9. Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (New
York: Vintage Books, 1992), 17; Joe Laurie and Abel Green, Show Biz From Vaude to
Video (New York: Holt, 19^1), 374; Berliner, Texas Guinan, 161 — 1 6 ^ ; Yablonsky,
Raft, 56—57', Chandler, Ultimate, 48.
10. Mae West, Frisco Kate, December 15, 1930, III, i, 3, 10, LC; Brooklyn Stan-
dard Union, February i, 1930.
i i. West, Frisco Kate, I, ii, 2o.
1 2. Stagg, Brothers Shubert, 276—280; VR, December 27, 1930.
13. West, Goodness, 140—143; Oettinger,"Literary Lil," 26, 62; Lowell Brentano,
"Between the Covers—II," Forum, February 193^, 97—99; George Thomas Kurian,
The Dictionary of American Book Publishing: From Founding Fathers to Today's Conglomer-
ates (New York: Simon & Schuster, 197^), 7.
14. Brentano, "Between," 97—99; Musgrove Log, September 2, 1969, SMC;
News, February 26, 1933; Oettinger, "Literary Lil," 62.
i £ . Mae West, The Constant Sinner (New York: Macaulay, 1930; 4th printing
! 9 3 i ) > 15-
16. Ibid., 167-168.
17. Ibid., 2^9.
18. Ibid., 30^, 307, 313.
19. West, Sinner, 90; Biery, "Part One," 103.
20. West, Sinner, 76, 167—169, 266—267, 3°7-
2 i. Ibid., 160—165.
22. Ibid., 168—169, 3°£-
23. Ibid., i£9, 168.
24. West,"Sex in the Theatre," 2—13, 32; West, Sinner, 177—178.
25. West, Sinner, 158; Johnson, "Snow White," 42.
26. West, Sinner, 159, 155, 261, 299—300.
27. Ibid., 2 2 8 .
2 8. West, Sinner, £ 2, 9 2, 2 16.
29. Wallace Thurman, The Blacker the Berry (New York: Macaulay, 1929), 34, 87;
Dorothy West, "Elephant's Dance: A Memoir of Wallace Thurman," Black World,
November 1970, 77—8$; Nathan Muggins, Harlem Renaissance (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1971), 111 — 136, 1^8—189.
30. West, Goodness, 1 1 2 — 1 1 3 , I4l '•> Carl Van Vechten, Nigger Heaven (New York:
Knopf, 1926); Muggins, Harlem Renaissance, 93—118.
31. West, Sinner, 174—17^, 194.
3 2. Angelica Houston and Peter Lester, "Mae West: The Queen at Home in Hol-
lywood," Interview, December, 1974, 12—14.
34. VR, October 22,November 19, 1930, January 7, 1931; West, ThreePlays,ii.
3£. West, Sinner, i, ii, iv; West, Goodness, 144; Publisher's Weekly, March 7, 193 i ,
1136.
36. Other African-American cast members included Robert Rains, Herbert

Brown, Marie Remsen, George Williams, and the black jazz band Dave Nelson's
Hot Shots. Billboard, September 26, 1931; Pittsburgh Courier, October 17, 1931;
NYHT, October 4, 1931. Contracts: Mae West (author) July 10, 1931, and Mae
West (actor), August 20, 1931; Letters: Mae West to Joseph M. Gaites, July 10 and
August 20, 1931; Memoranda: Adolph Kaufman to Lee Shubert and J. J. Shubert,
August 2£, 193 i and Treasurer to Norman Light, August 2£, 193 i; all Constant Sin-
ner Files, SA.
37. "Tribute to Mae West," Friends of the USC Library, March 2 1 , 1 9 8 2 , USC;
Richard Grupenhoff, The Black Valentino: The Stage and Screen Life of Lorenzo Tucker
(Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1988), 98—101; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West,
i oo—i o i; Douglas, Terrible Honesty, i o 2.
38. NYT, August 30, 1931; Standard Union, September i , 1931, Constant Sinner
Files, SA.
3 9. Joseph Wood Krutch, "In Defense of Mae West," Nation, September 30, 1931,
344; Mae West, The Constant Sinner, promptbook (1931), II, i, 4—8, II, v, 37, SA.
40. West, Sinner, prompt book, I, iii, i, 6—7.
41. Ibid., I, v, 5; II, iii, 19; III, iii, i ^ .
42. NYHT, September 16, 1931; Billboard, September 26, 1931; NYT, September
1
5 ) 193 ! » VR, September 2 2 , 1931; "Constant Sinner," New York Journal, Constant Sin-
ner Files, SA.
43. Wilella Waldorf, "Mae West Returns," September 1 5 , 1931, Constant Sin-
ner /CF, HU; "Mae West's New Drama," New York World Telegram and "Mae West
Stages a Tawdry Slumming Party," New York American, Constant Sinner Files, SA.
44. Pittsburgh Courier, October 17, 24, 1931; New York Amsterdam News, Septem-
ber 16, November 4, 1931; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, i o i .
4£. NYSSV Executive Secretary Reports, November 1930, Box 2 and October
193 i , Box 3, Sumner Papers; "Mae Frightens Play Judges" and "Mae West's Play
Disrupts Censorship Board," Constant Sinner Files, SA.
46. New York Graphic, September i£, October 23, 1931, and Alice Hughes, "Mae
West Can't Shop in Stores," New York Telegram, October 7, 1931, Constant Sinner
Files, SA; NYT, September i £ , October 4, 1931; VR, November 1 2 , 1930;
Chauncey, Gay New York, $i, 263, 266.
47. West, Sinner, prompt book, I, iii, £; Stagg, Brothers Shubert, 276— 28^.
48. Pittsburgh Courier, December £, 1931.
49. Washington Evening Star, November 24, 1931; Washington Herald, November
24, 1931; Washington Post, November 24, 1931; Grupenhoff, Black Valentino, 99—100.
50. Washington Post, November 2£, 26, 1931; Washington Evening Star, November
2£, 193 i ; NYHT, November 26, 1931, Constant Sinner Files, SA; Billboard, Decem-
ber £, 1931; Pittsburgh Courier, December 12, 1931.
^ i. NYHT, November 26, 1931; Grupenhoff, Black Valentino, i oo—i o i ; Billboard,
December 12, 1931.
^2. Illustrated News, June 20, 1932, MW/BF; NIT, June 16, 193 2; "George Raft
Interview," /WiAe Douglas Show, June 24, 1974, VL MSU.
Chapter Seven
1. Adolph Zukor with Dale Kramer, The Public Is Never Wrong (New York: G. P.
Putman's Sons, 19^3), 267; Cinema Digest, July 2^, 1932,4—£.
2. Illustrated News, June 2o, 1932; West, Wit and Wisdom, 27; VR, June 14, 1932;
West, Goodness, 146—149; Night After Night, Paramount Budget Reports, AMPAS;
LAT, June 20, 1932.
3. Edward Churchill, "So You Think You Know Mae West," Motion Picture, July
193^,49-
4. Ruth Biery, "The Private Life of Mae West: Part Four," Movie Classic, April
i934,9°-
$. LAT, July 17, 1932; Madge Tennant, "Mae West: Broadway's Most Daring Ac-
tress Drops Into Hollywood," M>vie Classic, c. 1932, BFI.
6. "Mae West Loves," April 16, 1933, MW/BF; Kirtley Baskette, "Mae West
Talks About Her 'Marriage,' "Photoplay, August 193^, 39, 40; Berliner, Texas Guinan,
161 —165, i j $ ; LAT, December £, 1933.
7. Zukor, The Public, 267—268; West, Goodness, iô— i £ i ; Cinema Digest, July 2^,
1932, ^; Night After Night, Revised First Script, August 6, 1932, Paramount Script
Files, and Night After Night, Budget Reports, August 2£, 1932, AMPAS.
8. "Mae West Fight," September 14, 1932, MW/BF.
9. Night After Night Pressbook (1932), AMPAS; Night After Night, (1932).
10. Night After Night (1932).
11. Davis, "The Decline," 8 2.
i 2. Night After Night Pressbook, AMPAS; Raft, Mike Douglas Show.
13. Yablonsky, Raft, 88; West, Goodness, i $ j ; Illustrated News, June 2o, 1932;
Night After Night Pressbook, AMPAS.
14. NYT, October 31, 1932; Motion Picture Herald, October 13, 1932; VR, No-
vember i , 1932.
r $ . NYT, October 7, 1932; VR, November i, 1932; James Robert Parrish, The
Paramount Pretties (New Rochelle: Arlington House, 1972), 302—303; Kenneth
Baker, "War Clouds in the West?" Photoplay, December 1933, i 10; Tino Balio,
Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise (Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 199^), 13—1£.
16. "West Robbery," October 13, 14, 1932, Herald, December 4, 1933, Citizen
News, January i , 1934, all MW/BF; LAT, December £, 1933.
17. Hays to Zukor, October 18 and November 2 2 , 1932; Hays to H. W. Warner,
October 19, 1932; Memorandum from JVW, November 11, 1932; Wingate to
Hays, November i, 11, 1932; Aide Memoire, undated; JPH to Colonel, November
NOTES TO PAGES 1^2—160 339
£, 1932; Hays to Wingate, November 2 2 , 1932; all She Done Him Wrong, PC A. VR,
November 29, 1932; Iy47~, October 31, 1 9 3 2 ; Jack Jacobs, "The Dandy Who Di-
rected: Lowell Sherman," Focus on Film (Winter 197^/1976): 43—£ i.
1 8. Martin Quigley, Decency in Motion Pictures (New York: Macmillan, 1937),
49—70; VR, November 29, December 6, 1 9 3 2 . Memorandum from Maurice
McKenzie, November 28, 1932; Wingate to Hurley, November 29, 1932; Hays to
Wingate, December 2, 1932; all She Done Him Wrong, PCA.
19. West, Goodness, 160; New York World Herald, February £, 1933.
20. Edith Head and Paddy Calistro, Edith Head's Hollywood (New York: Dutton,
1983), 20—23, r £ 2 ; Head and Ardmore, Dress Doctor, $ i— 5$.
11. Graham McCann, Cary Grant: A Class Apart (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1996), 2 2 6 ; Dorothy Hertzog, "Is Mae West a Fizzle?" Picture Play, May 1934;
i 3-14; "Miss West Talks Shop," c. 1934, BFI; Kobal, People, 418; John Bright, "One
of a Kind," LA. Weekly, July 16-22, 1982.
2 2. VR, January 13, 1933; West, Goodness, 161. Wingate to Hurley, January 11,
1933, and Wingate to Hays, January 13, 1933, She Done Him Wrong, PCA. Balio,
Grand Design, i 3—1 £; I. G. Edmonds and Robert Mimura, Paramount Pictures and the
People Who Made Them (New York: Barnes, 1980), 187; John Douglas Eames, The
Paramount Story (New York: Crown, 198^), 37.
23. She Done Him Wrong Pressbook (1933), AMPAS; Hall, "Look Out!"46, 108; "A
Portrait in Dots," Press Release, Paramount, October 1933, BFI.
24. VR, December 2o, 1 9 3 2 , 4 ; February 7, 14, 2 1 , 2 8 , March 14, 1933; New
York World Herald, February i o, 1933.
2 £. Daily Reports, February 21, 23, 24, 1933, Hays Papers; Sunday Dispatch, Jan-
uary 6, 193^, BFI.
26. Ben Maddox, "Don't Call Her a Lady," Picture Play, April 1933, BFI; VR, Feb-
ruary 14, 1933; NYHT, February 10, 1933; John Mason Brown, "The Constant Sin-
ner: Mae West of Stage and Screen," New York Evening Post, March 25, 1933.
27. NYT, February 10, 1933, i 2; VR, February 14, 1933; Daily Report, February
1
8, 1933, Hays Papers.
28. She Done Him Wrong (1933). Memoranda: Wingate to Hurley, November 29,
1 9 3 2 , January i i , 1933; to Hays, December 2, 193 2; to Harry Cohn, March 2,
1933; all She Done Him Wrong, PCA.
29. News, February 20, 1933.
30. Time, May 11, 1936, 70; "Letters Condemning Mae's Influence," 1934,
MW/MAD; Bradford, Born With the Blues, i 3 2; LAT, October 19, 1933.
3 i . "Frankie and Johnny," Rudy Vallee Show, 1933, VL MSU.
32. Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretative His-
tory of Blacks in American Films (New York: Continuum, 1990), 4^—46, 62—66.
33. Mae West and John Bright, "Ruby Red," First Script, November 8, 1 9 3 2 ,
A—32; She Done Him Wrong, Paramount Script Files, AMPAS.
34. Head and Ardmore, Dress Doctor, ^4.
34° NOTES TO PAGES 161 — 169
3£. Chris Albertson, Bessie (New York: Stein & Day, 1972), 191; Tolly Tix in
Washington (Educational Films Corporation, c. 1933); Frank Rose, The Agency:
William Morris and the Hidden History of Show Business (New York: HarperCollins,
!
993) 5 66; Clipping, December £, 1936, Scrapbook #£, SSC; Life, September
1933-
36. News, February 20, 1933; Jay Brien Chapman, "Is Mae West Garbo's Greatest
Rival?"Motion Picture, July 1933, 28—29, 76.
37. Schallert, "Go West," 84.
38. Clipping, August 27, 193^, Scrapbook #$, SSC; Brenon, "Real Mae;""Biog-
raphy of Mae West," October 1933, and Tom Baily, "The Life Story of Mae West," c.
1933; Paramount Press Releases, BFI.
39. Kobal, People, 3^; Condon,"Come Up,"42; Schallert, "Go West," 84;"! Was
Tempted," April 1934; Maddox, "Don't."
40. "Me and My Past"; I'm No Angel Pressbook (1933), AMPAS.
41. Janet Frame, An Autobiography (London: Women's Press, 1990), 44;
"Churches War Against Obscenity," Literary Digest, March 3, 1934; Chicago Tribune,
July 8, 1934; LAT, October 13, 1933, pt. 2, p. i; "particularly approve," c. 1933,
MW/MAD.
42. Hughes, "The Minority Vote," MW/CF, HU; James Davies, "And Now, a
Fresh Slant on Mae," Screenland, January 1934, 2^, 97; Schallert, "Go West," 32—33.
43. Mae Tinee, Chicago Tribune, n.d., BFI; Biery, "Part Four," 41, 89; Cecilia
Ager, "Mae West Reveals the Foundation of the 1900 Mode," Vogue, September
r
9 3 3 , 6 7, 86; Herald Examiner, April 9, 1933, MW/BF.
44. Ager, "Mae West Reveals," 86.
4£. Ray, "Curves Ahead," 24, 40.
46. Ager,"Mae West Reveals,"67, 86; Schallert, "Go West,"32—33.
47. Patricia Keats, "Sex Is Beautiful: Mae West Sexplains It All," MW/MAD;
Daily Report, February 2 1 , 1933, Hays Papers; Hilary Lynn, "How i 2 Stars Make
Love," Photoplay, August 1933, 31; Virginia Maxwell, "It's the Caveman Within Us
Calling for Mae,"Photoplay, December 1933, 38—39, 102.
48. Maddox, "Don't"; New York Sun, February 2o, 1933; Jennings, "Mae West,"
76.
49. Schallert, "Go West," 3 2; "Defending Mae West," Movie Classic, December
1933, BFI; West, Goodness, 162—163.
£o. Shawell, "Mae West Curves"; VR, November 19, 1924, March 28, 1933;
Hertzog, "Fizzle"; Citizen News, May 2, 1934, MW/BF.
£ i . "Charity Work," August 27, 1933, MW/BF; Stanley Musgrove, Mae West,
Draft, SMC; Boston Herald, August i 2, 1934, MW/CF HU.
£2. Maria Riva, Marlene Dietrich (New York: Knopf, 1993), 142, i £ i , 432, 434;
Marlene Dietrich, Marlene, trans. Salvator Attanasio (New York: Grove Press,
1989 ~)> 103—104.
NOTES TO PAGES 169—17^ 341
£3. Clipping, August 31, 1933, Scrapbook #4, SSC; Eels and Musgrove, Mae
West, us, i 33; "Mae West Loves," April 16, 1933, MW/BF; Biery, "Part One," 70;
Riva, Dietrich, 343.
£4. Zukor, The Public, 267; Daily Reports, July 7, 1933, Hays Papers; Clipping,
June 17, 1933, Scrapbook #3, SSC.
Chapter Eight
1. Albany Knickerbocker Press, May i, 19 3 3, in Daily Report, February 2 1 , 23, May

4, 1933, Hays Papers; West, Goodness, 164—16^, 167; Zukor, The Public, 269;
Schallert,"Go West," 33, 84.
2. Leonard J. Leffand Jerold Simmons, Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and
the Production Codejrom the lcj2Os to the 19605 (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), 30.
3. VR, April 2^, 1933; DenverPost, May 14, 1933; John Callan O'Laughlin to Hays,
April 10, 1933, Hays to Jack Warner, July 6, 1933, an(l John Stuart to Breen, June i,
1933, Hays Papers; Clipping, July 11, 1933, Scrapbook #3, SSC; LAT, April i o, 1933.
4. Sidney Kent to Hays, She Done Him Wrong, PCA; Daily Reports: February 23,
2
4> !933> Hays Papers; Gregory Black, Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics,
and the Movies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 23—24.
£. Martin Quigley to Will Hays, August 4, 1932, Hays Papers; Motion Picture Her-
ald, August 19, 1933; "The Girl I Went to See/'January i£, 1934, BFI.
6. Wingate to Botsford, June 23, 1933, I'm No Angel, PCA.
7. Gladys DuBois, Ben Ellison, and Harvey Brooks, "No One Does It Like That
Dallas Man"; Holman to McKenzie, June 2 1 , 1933, Wingate to Botsford, July ^,
1933, and McKenzie to Wingate and Breen, June 23, 1933; all I'm No Angel, PCA.
8. Wingate to Botsford, June 23, July i i , 1933, and Wingate to Kelly, July 19,
1933, I'm No Angel, PCA; Edith Efron, "Television Should Be Censored!" TV Guide,
August 1 ^ — 2 2 , 1970, 16— i 8; Tim Malachosky and James Greene, Mae West (Lan-
caster, Calif.: Empire, 1993), 3 2 -
9. Mae West, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It (New York: Manor Books,
1976, last edition), 28^; Clippings, August $, September 17, 1933, Scrapbook #3,
SSC; Julia Lang Hunt, "Trials and Triumphs of a Hollywood Dress Designer," Photo-
play, June 1936, £4, 86—88; Baskette, "Has Mae West," 110.
10. Wingate to Hart, September 16, 1933, and Hart to McKenzie, October 4,
1933, I'm No Angel, PCA.
11. Condon, "Come Up," 42; LAT, October 14, 1933; Premiere Program, I'm No
Angel, October i 2, 1933, I'm No Angel Production File, AMPAS.
i 2. "Perfect Day," February 1934, New Movie Magazine, MW/MAD; LAT, Octo-
ber 14, 1933, May 20, 1934; Riva, Dietrich, 367; Clipping, September 24, 1934,
Scrapbook #4, SSC; West, Goodness, 1^2.
342 NOTES TO PAGES 175_185
i 3. I'm No Angel (1933).

14. According to lore, West ad-libbed "peel me a grape" during filming. How-
ever, it is present in the preshooting drafts of the screenplay. I'm No Angel, June 19,
1933, Paramount Script Collection, AMPAS.
i £ . Wingate to Botsford, June 2 2 , 1933, I'm No Angel, PCA; West, Goodness,
169.
16. Lion tamer Mabel Stark may have stood in for West in some scenes. West,
Goodness, 164—166; Zukor, The Public, 269—274; Kobal, People, 160.
17. Kansas City Star, November 11, 1933; NYHT, October 21, 1933.
18. Boston Herald, August i 2, 1934, MW/CF, HU; "Perfect Day," MW/MAD;
"Charity Work," August 27, 1933, and Press Release, Paramount, c. 1934, MW/BF.
19. Screenland, January 1934, 62; I'm No Angel Pressbook (1934), AMPAS.
20. "Miss West in Her Victorious Course," n.d. and Boston Herald, October 28,
1933, MW/CF, HU; LAT, November £, 1933; Mae Tinee, Chicago Tribune, n.d., BFI.
21. NYT, October 14, 1933; VR, September 29, 1933; William Troy, "Mae West
and the Classic Tradition," Nation, November 8, 1933, ^47—^48.
22. Quigley, Decency, 3£—36; "Letters Condemning Mae's Influence,"MW/MAD;
Tampa Tribune, October 24, 1933, in Daily Report, October 30, 1933, Hays Papers.
23. LAT, October 2 2 , 1933.
24. NYTH, October 2 2 , 1933; Daily Reports October 23, 26, November 3 , 1 7 ,
1933, Hays Papers.
2£. "West Asks Rolph," October 11, 1933, MW/BF; LAT, January 4, 1934; Sam-
mis,"Kid Sister"; Nown, English Godfather, 119—120; West, Goodness, 178—179.
26. LAT, December £, September 28, 29, 1933; Berliner, Texas Guinan, 186—189;
Post Record, December £, 1933, MW/BF.
27. Examiner, January 16, 1934; LAT, December 6, 1933; Citizen News, January
16, 1933; all MW/BF.
28. LAT, January 17, 1934; Herald, January i£, 1934; Examiner, January 17, 1934;
Citizen News, January i £, 17, 1934; Daily News, January 18, 1934; all MW/BF.
29. Daily Express, April 1934, BFI; LAT, February 2, March 11, 1934; Daily News,
February 3, 1934; Herald, January 19, 1934, MW/BF.
0o. LAT, January 3 i , 1934.
3 i . "It Ain't No Sin," March 2, 1934, êlle of the Nineties, Paramount Script Col-
lection; "It Ain't No Sin," Treatment, Belle of the Nineties, PCA; Clipping, September
22, 1934, Scrapbook #4, SSC.
3 2. Black, Hollywood Censored, 170—172, 181.
33. Jimmie Fidler, "Come-upped and Saw Mae West," and "Stamped for
Change," MW/MAD; Gladys Hall, "The Crime of the Day in Hollywood," Motion
Picture, January 1934, 28—29, 7°-
34. LAT, September 23, 1934; Clipping, May 2, 1934, Scrapbook #4, SSC;
West, Goodness, 17^.
3£. "It Ain't No Sin"; "Creole Man," Belle of the Nineties, PCA.
NOTES TO PAGES 185—19^ 343
36. Breen to Botsford, March i 2, 1934, Belle of the Nineties, PCA; Clippings,
March i 2, May 2, 1934, Scrapbook # 4, SSC.
3 7. "A Puritan" and "Frank, Humorous," MW/MAD; Hall, "Crime of the Day," 70.
38. Malachosky and Greene, Mae West, £9; Johnson, "Snow White," 40. "My Old
Flame,""Troubled Waters," Duke Ellington Collection, Smithsonian Institution;
West, Goodness (1976), 284—284;; Breen to Botsford, March 7, 1934, and Hays to
Zukor, March 28, 1934, Belle of the Nineties, PCA; Baskette, "Has Mae West," 39,
110—11 2; Clippings, March i 2, April 9, May 2, 1934, Scrapbook #4, SSC; Charles
Higham, Hollywood Cameramen: Sources of Light (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1970), 121 — 133.
39. "Jack West," March 18, 1934; "Mae West Brings Father to Hollywood," July
1, 1934; Paramount Press Release, c. 1934; Herald, May 2, 1934; Citizen News, May
2, 1934; P°st Record, May 2, 1934; all MW/BF. Sammis, "Strange Career"; LAT, Jan-
uary 4, 1934; Clippings, April 23, 30, 1934, January i , 1935, Scrapbook #4, SSC;
Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 141—43.
40. Anita Loos, Kiss Hollywood Goodbye (New York: Viking Press, 1974),
169—171; NYT, June 9, 1934; Hedda Hopper, From Under My Hat (Garden City:
Doubleday, 19^2), 303—304; West, Goodness, 24^.
41. Black, Hollywood Censored, 174—176, i 8 3; "Acceptions and Rejections," July
1934, Breen to Hays, June 2, 1934, Breen to Hammell, June 6, 1934, Memorandum
from Breen, June 6, 1934, Belle of the Nineties, PCA; Clipping, June 2 £ , 1934,
Scrapbook #4, SSC;
42. Clippings, August 20, September 22, 1934, Scrapbook #4, SSC; Memoran-
dum from Hays, July 15, 1934, Belle of the Nineties, PCA.
43. Breen to Hays, August 3, 1934, to Hammell, August 7, 1934, Belle of the
Nineties, PCA; Clippings, August 2o, 1934, Scrapbook #4, SSC.
44. Clippings, August 23, 1934, SSC; Citizen News, August 18, 1934; MW/BF;
LAT, August 2^, 1934.
4^. Belle of the Nineties (1934).
46. VR, September 2£, 1934; NYT, September 22, 1934; Illustrated Daily News,
September 1934; Motion Picture Daily, August 2o, 1934; Belle of the Nineties Pressbook
(i934)-
47. Lawrence Levine, Black Culture, Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought
From Slavery to Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 1^9—160, 244.
48. VR, August 2£, 1934; Davis,"The Decline,"46;Bridgeport (Connecticut) Star,
October 9, 1934, Scrapbook, Ellington Collection, Smithsonian Institution; Gilbert
Seldes, "Sugar and Spice and Not So Nice," Esquire, March 1934, 60.
49. "No One Really Knows Mae West," Paramount Press Release, c. 193^,
MW/BF; Belle of the Nineties Pressbook; Oettinger, "Literary Lil," 26.
£o. Haddad-Garcia, " Everybody's Friend," 63; NYT, June 9, 1934; Winter to
Breen, n.d. and "Acceptance and Rejections," February and November 1934, Belle of
the Nineties, PCA.
344 NOTES TO PAGES 19^—203
£ i . Winter to Breen, n.d., Belle of the Nineties, PCA; Will H. Hays, The Memoirs
of Will H. Hays (Garden City: Doubleday, 1955), 41 2; William French, "What Price
Glamour?" Motion Picture, November 1934, 29; Boston Herald, September 24, 1934,
MW/CF, HU; Illustrated Daily News, September 1934; MW/BF; "Twenty Five
Deep," October 1934, BFI.
5-2. NYT, September 30, 1934; Boston Herald, September 27, 1934, MW/CF,
HU; Gilbert Seldes, "Two Great Women," Esquire, July 193^, 86, 143; Frank Walsh,
Sin and Censorship: The Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1996), 110.
£3. George Kent, "The Mammy and Pappy of Us All," Photoplay, May 1934,
3 2 — 3 3 , 100—103; Paramount Press Release, c. 1934, MW/BF; Belle of the Nineties
Pressbook; Leo McCarey, "Mae West Can Play Anything," Photoplay, June 1935,
30—3 i, i 26—1 27.
£4. "Miss West Talks Shop," 1934, BFI; Helen Harrison, "The Man You Want:
Mae West Gives You His Number," Photoplay, September 1934, 67; LAT, September
23,1934-
££. Mae West, "That's All Brother," Mae West Canned Laughter, Audiocassette
(Mind's Eye, 1985-).
Chapter Nine
1. LAT, May 20, September 23, 1934, September 3, 1948.

2. Breen to Hammell, December 19, 1934, to Hays, January 2, 193^, Coin' to
Town, PCA; Citizen News, September 26, 1934, MW/BF.
3. Breen to Hammell, January 16, 24, 193^, Gain' to Town, PCA.
4. LAT, January 7, 193^; VR, January 8, 193^; Dave Keene, Paramount Press Re-
lease, c. 193^, MW/BF; DeC, John West, January 6, 193^, Oakland, California.
$. Gain'to Town, Paramount Budget Records, AMPAS.
6. Press Release, c.1934, MW/BF; NYT, May 19, 193^; Clippings, November
1
3 > 193S> Scrapbook #£, SSC; Hertzog, "Is Mae West."
7. Budd Schulberg, Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince (New York:
Stein & Day, 1981), 486—487; Scott Eyman, Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 22^—239; West, Goodness, 190; Gain'to Town, Para-
mount Budget Records, AMPAS; Clipping, May 11, 193^, Scrapbook #£, SSC.
8. Hays to Zukor, February 8, 2 2 , 193^, I'm No Angel, PCA; Clipping, December
11, 1934, Scrapbook #4, SSC; Coin'to Town Pressbook (193^), AMPAS.
9. Time, May 6, 193^, S4-—5S', Examiner, April 22, 23, 193^; NYT, April 22, 1935
10. Time, May 6, 193^, £4—55; LAT, April 23, 193^; Examiner, April 24, 25,
1935; New York American, June 30, 193^, Robinson Locke Scrapbook, Rose.
11. Time, May 6, 193^, £4; NYT, May i 2, 193^.
NOTES TO PAGES 2 0 3 —2 1 3 345
i 2. VR, May 29, 193^.

13. Coin' to Town (193^).
14. Breen to Hays, n.d., Coin' to Town, PCA.
i £. Motion Picture Daily, October i 2 , 193^; Zaring to Breen, May 31, 193^, Coin'
to Town, PCA; NYT, May 19, 193^.
1 6. Hollywood Reporter, April 23, 193^; FR, May i£, 193^; ATT, May 19, 193^.
17. NYT, May 1 1 , 193^; KR, June £, 193^.
1 8. N>T, May 1 1 , 193^; Clipping, May 1 1, 193^, Scrapbook # ^, SSC; VR, May
119355,
19. Robert Eichberg, "Mae West Marriage Question," MW/MAD; Examiner,
April 24, 2^, 193^; L4JC January i 2, 1936; N77^ January 7, i ^ , 1937.
20. Baskette, "Mae West Talks," 38—40, 91; Clipping, August 27, 193^, Scrap-
book #£, SSC; J. Eugene Chrisman, "An Open Letter to Mae West," Motion Picture,
August 193^, 38, 79; NYT, August 1 1, 1940.
21. Anthony Quinn, The Original Sin: A Self-Portrait (Boston: Little, Brown,
1972), 2 10; Johnson, "Snow White," 42, 46, 48; LAT, December 4, 1936; West,
Goodness, 2^4; Harry McCarthy, "Mae West's Open Door Policy," Hollywood Confi-
dential, November i 9 £ £ , 18, 19,46—47.
2 2 . Tarnm to the Director [Hoover], October 8, 1935; Hoover to Dunn, Octo-
ber 8, 193^; Dunn to Hoover, October 13, December 10, 193^; "Suspect Re-
leased," Evening Public Ledger, October 8 , 1 9 3 £ ; Laboratory Reports; all FBI. "Retains
Her Nonchalance," MW/CF, HU; LAT, October 8, 9, 193^.
23. Robert Parrish, Growing Up in Hollywood (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jo-
vanovich, 1976), 72—88.
24. Clippings, September 24, December 10, 193^, Scrapbook # £, SSC; Raoul
Walsh, Each Man in His Time (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974), 2 7 ^ — 2 7 8 ;
VR, September 2^, November 6, 193^; West, Goodness, 181 — 182; Marion Morgan
and George McDowell, "Hallelujah, I'm a Saint/How About it Brother," Klondike
Annie, Paramount Script Collection, AMPAS.
2£. Asian- American cast members for Klondike Annie included Soo Young (Fah
Wong), Mrs. Wong Wing (Ah Toy), Wong Chung, (Tong member), Paul Fung
(Tong member), and Tetsu Komai (Lon Fang). Call Bureau Cast Service, January
10, 1936, Production File, and Paramount Budget Reports, Klondike Annie, AMPAS.
26. Telephone, Hays and Hammell, June 26, 193^, and Hammell to Hays, June
29, 193^, Klondike Annie, PCA.
27. Memorandum from G. S., 193^, Klondike Annie, PCA.
28. Breen to Hammell, September 4, 193^, Klondike Annie, PCA.
29. Klondike Annie (1936).
30. Clipping, December 9, 1934, Scrapbook #^, SSC. C. Metzter Notes, De-
cember 3 1 , 193^; Breen to Hammell, December 3 i , 193^; Staff Criticisms, Febru-
ary 7, 1936; Memorandum: Breen, February 10, 1936; all Klondike Annie, PCA.
3 i. Klondike Annie Pressbook (1936) and Screen Book Magazine, April 1936, n.p.,
Klondike Annie, Production File, AMPAS; Motion Picture Herald, February i£, 1936.
32. VR, March 18, 1936; Klondike Annie Pressbook, AMPAS; Hays to Breen, Febru-
ary 29, 1936, Pittsburgh-Sun Telegraph, February 2 2 , 1936, and social worker's com-
ments, Klondike Annie, PCA.
33. Illustrated Daily News, February 28, 1936; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West,
103—106.
34. James Thurber, "Redemption," Stage, April 1936, 46—47.
3£. Breen to Hays, March 2, 1936, Klondike Annie, PCA.
3 6. Thurber, "Redemption," 47.
37. NYT, March i ^ , 1936; Hollywood Reporter, March 2 1 , 1936; Motion Picture
Herald, March 7, 14, 1936.
38. [Hearst] to Koblentz and all managing editors, n.d., Klondike Annie, PCA;
VR, February 26, 1936; Examiner, February 28, 29, 1936.
39. West, Goodness, i 86; Motion Picture Herald, March 7, 1936; Illustrated Daily
News, February 28, 1936; Time, March 9, 1936, 44.
40. Citizen News, March 4, 1936; VR, March 11, 1936; Examiner, February 27, 1936.
41. Claude A. Shull to Paramount Studios, May i , 1936, and Anonymous to
Hays and West, Klondike Annie, PCA; James Skinner, The Cross and the Cinema: The Le-
gion oj Decency and the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures, 1933—19JO (West-
port: Praeger, 1993), 17~I9> 34> S°-
42. Motion Picture Herald, March 7, 1936.
43. West, Goodness, 190; NYT, March i£, 1936; VR, January i£, 1936; "There Is
Unrest," MW/CF, HU.
44. John Kobal, "Mae West,"Fi/ms and Filming, September 1983, 2 i—2^.
4£. Citizen News, February 2^, 1936, and Louella Parsons, February 22, 1936,
MW/BF; LAT, February 22, 1$, 26, 1936; NYT, March 6, 1936; Clipping, February
19, 1936, Scrapbook #^ SSC.
46. Clippings, March i 2, June i 8, 1936, Scrapbook #6, SSC.
47. McKenzie to Hays, November 7, 1934, Go West Young Man, PCA.
48. Memoranda, JIB [Breen], February 13, 19, June i, 1936, Go West Young Man,
PCA; Personal Appearance, June 2^, 1936, and Go West Young Man, Paramount Script
Collection, AMPAS.
49. Go West Young Man Pressbook (1936), AMPAS.
ô. Go West Young Man (1936).
£ i . NYT, November 19, 1936.
£ 2 . Notes, Breen, June i , 1936, Go West Young Man, PCA; Personal Appearance,
June 2£, 1936, and Go West Young Man, Paramount Script Collection, AMPAS; VR,
December 2^, 1936.
^3. VR, November 3, December 2^, 1936; New York Evening Journal, November
19, 1936; Indianapolis Star, November 21, 1936; NYT, November 19, 1936.
NOTES TO PAGES 223 —2 3 1 347
5-4. Motion Picture Herald, November 14, 1936; Tuska, Complete Films, 127; Gra-
ham Greene, Graham Greene on Film, ed. John Russell Taylor (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1972), 124.
$$. Madame Sylvia, "Is Mae West Skidding on the Curves?" Photoplay, November
1936,48-49, 86, 88.
56. "Exclusive," Screen Guide, and Mae West to Lew Garvey, 1936, MW/MAD.
£7. Los Angeles Daily News, November 28, 1936; NYT, December i£, 1935; LAT,
February 28, 1936.
^8. "Overstuffed," MW/MAD; Time, July 19, 1937, 62; Clipping, July 10, 1937,
Scrapbook #6, SSC; LAT, May 9, 1937; NYT, July 8, 1937; Look, May 25, 1937,
26-29.
Chapter Ten
1. West, Goodness, 190—196; LAT, September 3, 1948.

2. Balio, Grand Design, 244; West, Goodness, 190—192; Head and Castro, Edith
Head's Hollywood, 2£.
3. Cohen to Breen, August 3, 1937, Breen to Cohen, August 6, 10, 1937, and
Private Memorandum, JIB [Breen], August 10, 1937, Every Day's a Holiday, PCA.
4. "I wouldn't even lift my veil" survived until the early release. West, Goodness,
193. State Censorship Reports, January 13, 1938; Breen to Cohen, August 6, 10,
1937, September i, 1937; Cohen to Breen, August 31, 19 3 7; all Every Day's a Holi-
day, PCA.
£. Haddad-Garcia, "Everybody's Friend,"63.
6. Hoagy Carmichael with Stephen Longstreet, Sometimes I Wonder: The Story of
Hoagy Carmichael (New York: Da Capo Press, 1976), 274.
7. Every Day's a Holiday (1937).
8. Breen to Cohen, August 6, 1937, Every Day's a Holiday, PCA.
9. "Mae West has learned," Every Day's a Holiday, PCA; Every Day's a Holiday, Yel-
low Script, Paramount Script Collection, AMPAS.
10. Breen to Cohen, September i , November 24, 1937, Every Day's a Holiday,
PCA; Yellow Script, Paramount Script Collection, AMPAS.
i i. Every Day's a Holiday Pressbook (1937).
i 2. NYT, December 12, 1937, January 19, 1938; Motion Picture Herald, Decem-
ber 2£, 1937; J. Walter Thompson Agency to Oboler, December 11, 1937, Duke;
West, Goodness, 193—195; LAT, November i 2, 1964.
13. Chase and Sanborn Hour, Script, December i 2, 1937, Duke.
14. Ibid; Evening Star, December 18, 1937; NYT, December 18, 1937; Time, De-
cember 27, 1937, 30; Congressional Record, 83, pt. i , 7£th Congress, 3rd Session,
January 14, 1938, 560—563;Motion Picture Herald, December 2^, 1937.
i 5. "Nationwide Protests," Every Day's a Holiday, PCA; Motion Picture Herald, De-
cember 25, 1937; LAT, November 12, 1964.
16. NYT, December 25, 26, 1937, January 15, 16, 1938.
17. Motion Picture Daily, December 2 i, 1937, Indianapolis Star, January i 5, 1938,
NYHT, January 27, 1938, all Every Day's a Holiday, PCA; NYT, January 27, 30, 1938.
1 8. Clipping, May 12, 1938, Scrapbook #6, SSC.
19. Sidone Gabrielle Colette, Colette at the Movies (New York: Ungar, 1975),
62—64.
20. West, Wit and Wisdom, 92—94; Charles Fox, "Personality: Mae West,"Fi/m,
March/April 19^6, 19; "Glamour Under Fire,"Business Week, May 14, 1938.
2 i. Clipping, May 16, 1938, Scrapbook #6, SSC; New York Post, March 15, 1939,
"Personal Appearance," MW/MAD; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 187—196; NYT,
April 2 2 , 1938; West, Goodness, 196; VR, January 5, 1938; Parrish, Paramount Pret-
ties, 577-57$-
22. NYT, April 17, 1938; Clipping, May 12, 1938, Scrapbook # 6, SSC; "Six
Shows a Day" and "Mae's Tour," MW/MAD; Boston Herald, April 27, 1938,
MW/CF, HU.
23. New York Post, March 15, 1939; Irwin F. Zeltner, What the Stars Told Me: Holly-
wood in Its Heyday (New York: Exposition Press, 1971), ^4—^8.
24. West, Goodness, 196—198; Memo From David O. Selznick, ed. Rudy Behlmer
(New York: Viking, 1972), 178.
25. New York Post, March 15, 1939; Frank Vreeland, Foremost Films of 1938: A Year-
book of the American Screen (New York: Pitman, 1939), 17.
26. New York Post, March 15, 1939.
27. W. C. Fields, W C. Fields by Himself: His Intended Autobiography, ed. Ronald J.
Fields (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1973), 324—3^3.
28. Listening Post to Joseph Breen, September 8, 1939, My Little Chickadee,
PCA.
29. Boston Globe, September 29, 1994; Meryman,"Mae West," 70.
30. Breen to Pivar, September 26, 1939, October 23, 31, 1939, My Little Chick-
adee, PCA; Fields, W.C., 347-349.
3 i. My Little Chickadee (1939)
32. NYT, November 12, 1939, March 7, 1940; Boston Globe, August 18, 1939,
MW/CF, HU; Fields, W.C., 3^9.
3 3. My Little Chickadee; Harold Clurman, "Mae West," New Republic, February 2 i,
1949,28.
34. Hollywood Reporter, February 7, 1939; NYT, March 16, 1940; VR, February 7,
1939.
3£. Delight Evans, "An Open Letter to Mae West," MW/MAD; My Little Chickadee.
36. West, Sex, Health, and ESP, 110; Clipping, January 8, 1940, Scrapbook #6,
SSC; "Spy Picture," Boston Post, 1942, MW/CF, HU.
NOTES TO PAGES 240 —249 349
37. NYT, March 16, 1940; Time, December 13, 1943, 94, 97.
38. "My Little Chickadee," Life, February 19, 1940, 64—6^; "Never Grows Old!"
i 9 4 3,MW/MAD.
39. Time, December 13, 1943, 97; Donald R. Morris, "Why Don't You Come
Up?" American Heritage, September 1992, 34—3^; Kirk Douglas, The Ragman's Son
(New York: Pocket Books, 1989), 104—io£.
40. Rosen to Tamm, March 30, 1943, FBI; NYT, February 21, 1940, October
2 1 , 1942; LAT, August £, 1943; VR, October 19, 1966.
41. West, Goodness, 2 0 9 — 2 1 1 ; Press Release, c. 1934, Paramount Studios,
MW/BF; Belle oj the Nineties Pressbook; Johnson, "Snow White," 40, 42, 4^—46;
West, Sex, Health, and ESP, 1 1 6 — 1 2 2 .
42. West, Sex, Health, and ESP, i 23—149; West, Goodness, 2 11 — 2 i£; Meryman,
"Mae West," 7 2; Jennings, "Mae West," 8 2.
43. West, Goodness, 193, 219, 2 2 1 ; Time, December i 3, 1943, 97.
44. West, Goodness, 2 19—220; Breen to Ratoff, July 19, 1943, Heat's On, PCA.
4£. Heat's On (1943); West, Goodness, 2 1 9 — 2 2 0 ; Malachosky and Greene, Mae
West, 161; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 199.
46. NYT, November 26, 1943; Time, December 13, 1943, 94, 97; VR, December
i, 1943; Chicago Defender, July 31,1943; Jim Pines, Blacks in Films: A Survey of Racial
Themes and Images in American Films (London: Studio Vista, 197^), 57-
47. West, Goodness, 220; Heat's On (1943).
48. NIT, July 18, 1943.
49. Mr. Blackwell with Vernon Patterson, From Rags to Bitches: An Autobiography
(Los Angeles: General Publishing Group, 199^), 71—74; Kate Sprochnle, "Theatre,"
Mademoiselle, October 1944, 166, 229; West, Goodness, 2 2 2 — 2 2 3 .
ô. Art Cohn, The Nine Lives of Michael Todd (New York: Random House, 19^8),
189; "Mae West Tribute," USC, 2 9 — 3 1 ; Downing to Bill, November 13, 1944,
Downing Collection, HU; West, Goodness, 224.
£ i. Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 2 i 2—2 19; Cohn, Nine Lives, i 88—195-; Steven
Roberts, "76—And Still Diamond Lil," NYT Magazine, November 2, 1969, 80.
$2. New York Post, March i£, 1939, MW/MAD.
£3. Cohn, Nine Lives, 188—19^; Michael Todd Jr. and Susan McCarthy Todd, A Valu-
able Property: The Life Story of Michael Todd (New York: Arbor House, 1983), 119—122.
^4. Mae West, Catherine Was Great, April 10, 1944, I, i, 6, 10, LC; Handwritten
lines in playbill, Catherine Was Great, October 8, 1944, Catherine Was Great/C¥, HU.
$$. West, Catherine, I, ii; West, Wit and Wisdom, 11.
^6. West, Catherine, I, I—v.
£7. West, Catherine, III, v.
£8."Catherine Was Great,"Life, August 2 i, 1944, 71—72; New Yorker, August i 2,
1944, 38; NYT, August 3, 1944; Joseph Wood Krutch, "Furtherest West," Nation,
August 12, 1944, 194; News, August 3, 1944.
350 NOTES TO PAGES 2£O— 2 6 o
^9. West, Goodness, 2 2 2—2 2£; "Admirers Are Legion," MW/MAD; Sprochnle,
"Theatre," 166; Downing to Bill, November 13, 1944, HU.
60. Krutch, "Furtherest West," 194; New Yorker, August i 2, 1944, 38; West,
Goodness, 197; New York Post, March i£, 1939; Sprochnle,"Theatre," 229.
61. West, Catherine, II, iv, i; II, i, 4, iii, 6; III, i, 3; Cohn, Nine Lives, 190; San
Francisco Chronicle, September i, 1972.
62. Boston Post, January 24, 1945"; Christian Science Monitor, January 2 3 , 1945;
Stark Young, "What Maisie Knows," New Republic, August 2 i, 1944, 2 19—220.
63. Playbill, Catherine Was Great, October 8, 1944, Catherine Was Great/CP, HU;
West, Wit and Wisdom, 2 i .
64. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, trans. Helen Iswolsky (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1984), 3; Brentano, "Between Covers," 97—98; NYT,
March i 2, 1936.
6^. West, Catherine, II, i, 6.
66. Boston Herald, January 23, 194^.
67. West, Goodness, 2 2 7 ; Todd and Todd, Valuable Property, i 22.
Chapter Eleven
1. West, Goodness, 2 2 7 — 2 2 8 ; Arlena Gibson, "Go West, Young Man," Village

Voice, August 29, 1989, 57—s8.
2. Mae West, Come On Over/Embassy Row [Come on Up], February 28, 1946, III,
23, 27, LC.
3. West, Come On, II, 13.
4. Thomas Schatz, Boom and Bust: The American Cinema in the 1940$ (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1997), 34.
£. Berle, "B.S.," 14.1—24.2.
6. West, Come On, II, £-6.
7. LAT, February 16, 1947; West, Come On, I, 4—6, 14.
8. Gibson, "Go West," 57—s8; West, Goodness, 2 2 8 — 2 2 9 ; Theatre World, 1945—46,
13^;1946~47, 132-133-
i o. LAT, February 9, 11, 1947.
i i. Tuska, Films, 164; Theatre World, 1946—47, 132; West, Goodness, 228; Eels and
Musgrove, Mae West, 2 2 2 .
12. Mirror, September 18, 1947, Graphic, September 17, 18, 1947, BFI; West,
Goodness, 2 2 9—2 3 i.
13. Malakosky and Greene, Mae West, 181; Mirror, December 30, 1949, BFI;
West, Goodness, 2 3 1 .
14. "Review," January 26, 1948, Diamond Lil/CF, HU; Sunday Express, January 25,
1948, BFI; West, Goodness, 2 3 1 — 2 3 2 ; Lawrence Lader, "Come Up'n See Her,"
Pageant, February 1950, 57—62.
15. LAT, August 25—28, 1948; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West, 189; Standard,
April 24, 1948, BFI; West, Goodness, 234—235.
16. LAT, September 1—3, 1948.
17. West, Goodness, 236, 244; Theatre World, 1948—49, 185; Eels and Musgrove,
Mae West, 188—189, 2 2 7 — 2 2 9 ; Clippings, c. 1950, December i 2, 1953, BFI.
i 8. NYT, November 28, 30, 1948; West, Goodness, 2 3 7 .
19. Tribune, February 5, 1949, Diamond Lil/CF, HU; NYT, January 16, 17, 2 1 ,
1949; "America's Favorite Hussy," Life, May 23, 1949, 104; West, Goodness, 2 3 7 ;
Lader, "Come Up'n," 59.
20. Howard Barnes, "Personal Triumph," January 7, 1949, Diamond Lil/CF, HU;
New York Post, February 7, 1949; NYT, February 7, 1949; Gilbert Gabriel, "West-
ward Wow!" Theatre Arts, May 1949, 26.
2 1 . "America's Favorite Hussy," 104; NYT, February 28, May 19, June 8, 1949;
Lader, "Come Up'n," 57—62; West, Goodness, 238—241.
22. Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 2 2 9 — 2 3 1 , 239—240; Kevin Lally, Wilder Times:
The Life of Billy Wilder (New York: Henry Holt, 1996), 186-1 89.
23. NYT, September 7, 1949, February 17, 18, 1950; West, Goodness, 241; Eels
and Musgrove, Mae West, 234—238.
24. NYHT, December 5, 1948; NYT, January 2 i , 1950; Thomas, "A Match"; He-
len Lawrenson, "Mirror, Mirror on the Ceiling: How'm I Doing?" Esquire, July
1967, 72.
25. John Mason Brown, "Mae Pourquoi," Saturday Review, October 8, 1949, 50;
New York Post, February 7, 1949; Playbill, Diamond Lil, Plymouth Theater, January
30, 1951, Diamond Lil Program File, HU.
26. Mae West on the Air: Rare Recordings (Sandy Hook Records, 1985); West, Good-
ness, 241—242; Newsweek, January 16, 1950, 46; Brown, "Mae Pourquoi," 50—51.
27. Breen to Luraschi, September 2, 1949, Luraschi to Breen, September 6,
1949, I'm No Angel, PCA; NYT, September 7, 1949.
28. New Republic, February 2 i , 1949, 28; Mae West, Diamond Lil, 1964, II, ii, 14,
LC; Brown, "Mae Pourquoi," 50.
29. Brown, "Mae Pourquoi," 50; NYT, February 7, 1949.
30. Brown, "Mae Pourquoi," 50—51; New York Post, February 7, 1949.
31. West, Goodness, 242, 244; Clipping, c. 1950, "Mae West Will Receive," BFI;
"So I Went Up to See Mae West," Popular Photography, July 1966, 3 2—3 3.
32. LAT, September 13, 1953; Theatre Arts, October 1953, 89; West, Goodness,
243-244.
33. NYT, April 6, 1954; VR, April 7, 1954.
34. West, Goodness, 24^—247; West, Goodness (1976), 2^3—2^4; Linda Henry,
"Beauty and the Beef: Bodybuilding Legend George Eiferman," Muscle and Fitness,
May 1994, 144—147, 200, 2o£.
3£. Kaplan, "Mae West No Gamble," BFI; VR, July 2 8 , 19^4; West, Goodness
(1976), 2 ^ 3 — 2 $ $ ; "Sexiest Night Club Act," Ebony, November 19^4, 103—106.
36. "Sexiest Night Club Act," 103—106; Henry, "Beauty and the Beef," 144—147;
West, Goodness, 248; VR, July 28, 19^4.
37. "Sexiest Night Club Act," 103—106; Earl Wilson, "Mae West Finding Years
No Handicap," MW/BF; Meryman,"Mae West," 62; West, Goodness, 248-25-0; VR,
July 28, 19^4.
38. Henry, "Beauty and the Beef," 146.
39. Wilson, "Finding Years."
J S t £,
40. Fox, "Personality," 19; Tuska, Films, 173; "Sexiest Night Club Act," 103—106.
41. "Sexiest Night Club Act," 103-106.
42. West, Goodness, 245—2^2, 263; West, Goodness (1976), 2^3—2^6.
43. Jocelyn Paris, Jayne Mansfield: A Bio—Bibliography (Westport: Greenwood
Press, 1994), 17; Washington Post, June 8, 19^6; Henry, "Beauty and the Beef," 147;
Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 246.
44. "Sex Legend's Apartment Sale," Collector, November 1994, 2o; Paris, Jayne
Mansfield, 1 — 14, 88.
4£. Washington Post, June 8, 29, 30, 19^6; "Guilty of Universe Assault," c. 195^6,
MW/MAD; West, Goodness, 2^2—2^4; West, Goodness (1976), 2^9—261.
46. McCarthy, "Mae West's Open Door," 18—19, 46~47-
47. NYT, May £, July 30, August i, 4, 1957; LAT, August i 2—14, 19, 20, 1957;
West, Goodness, 2^4—25-^.
48. West, Goodness, 2££.
49. LAT, August 13, 1957; NYT, August 13, 1957; NYT, November 8, 13,
I9S7-
£o. Alan Arnold, "Often, It's Written by the Star," Saturday Review, November
28, ! 9£9> 2 3— 2 4; NYT, March 27, 19^8.
£ i . West, Goodness, 5-2, 1 2 3 , 1 3 2 — 1 3 3 , 2 3 7 , 268; Eels and Musgrove, Mae
West, 17.
£2. NYT, October 11, 19^9; Maurice Richardson, "Showbiz Dames," New States-
men, October 29, 1960, £6—^7.
£3. West, Goodness, 255.
54. Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 246—248; "Sexiest Night Club Act," 103—106;
Johnson, "Snow White," 42, 46.
££. NYT, October 16, 19^9; Book Review Digest, 1960, 1423.
^6. "Dean Martin Show," c. 19^9, Mae West on the Air.
$j. "Red Skelton Show," March i , 1960, Mae West on the Air.
NOTES TO PAGES 2 8 2—29^ 353
Chapter Twelve
1. West, Goodness (1976), 2 6 2 .

2. Chicago Daily Tribune, July 8, 10, 1961; West, Goodness (1976), 264—266; Mi-
ami Sun, August 13, 1961; VR, c. 1961, SMC.
3. Mae West, Sextette, May £, 1961,1, ii, LC.
4. Ibid., I, i, 19—20.
£. Richman, Hell of a Life, 42—43; West, Goodness (1976), 276—278; Leo Guild, "The
Strange Dark World of Mae West," People, October 11, 1964, BFI; Kobal, People, 156;
Lewis H. Lapham, "Let Me Tell You About Mae West," Saturday Evening Post, November
14, 1964, 76—78; Musgrove Log, August 21, 29, 1969, January 16, 197^, SMC.
6. Eels and Musprove,
o '
Mae West.' 261.
7. Rose, The Agency, 271.
8. "Mae West Meets Mister Ed," Mister Ed, March i £, 1964; "Mister Ed Barges
Into a Boudoir," TV Guide, February 29—March 6, 1964, 20—2 i; Eels and Musgrove,
Mae West, 260—261; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West, 234.
9. LAT, July i£, 1999; Lapham, "Let Me," 76; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West,
238; Musgrove Log, October 9, 1969, March 27, May 15, 1973, SMC.
10. West, Goodness (1976), 266—272; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West, 2 3 7 .
11. Diane Arbus, Diane Arbus Magazine Work, ed. Doon Arbus and Marvin Israel (New
York: Aperture, 1984), ^8—61; Guild, "The Strange Dark"; Charles Krauser v. Estate of
Mae West, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, June 2 2 , 1981.
i 2. West, Sex, Health, and ESP, 148—149; Will: Mae West, November 7, 1964,
Los Angeles,
o '
California.
13. Lapham, "Let Me," 7 7—7 8.
14. Arbus, Magazine Work, ^8, 61.
15. VR, April 17, 1968.
16. Kevin Thomas, "Mae West, Like Rock 'n Roll Music, Is Still Deeply Rooted
in Ragtime," Washington Post, January i , 1967; Lawrenson, "Mirror, Mirror," 7^.
17. Ian Whitcomb," 'Come Up and Rock With Me': My Adventures With Mae
West," Let It Rock, March 1973, 18—2 2.
i 8. West, Wit and Wisdom, 9, i 2 i .
19. West, Goodness (1976), 274—276; VR, February 2 1 , 1968; Eels and Mus-
grove, Mae West, 266—267; NYT, August 10, October 13, 1968.
0o. Jennings, "Mae West," 74; Hamilton, "Raquel Welch," 44—48; West, Goodness
(1976), 276-278; Thomas,"Like Rock"; NYT, October 17, 1968.
2 1 . Musgrove Log, August 13, 1969, SMC; West, Goodness (1976), 278—279.
22. NYT, August 14, 1969; Musgrove Log, August 21, 1969, SMC.
2 3 . Musgrove Log, August 16, 2o, 2 1 , 31, September 2, 8, 17, November 8,
1969, SMC; NYT, August 14, 1969; West, Goodness (1976), 279—283.
354 NOTES TO PAGES 29^—306
24. Musgrove Log, August 15, September 8, 1969, SMC.

2^. Musgrove Log, September 10, i£, October 17, 29, 1969, SMC.
26. "Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her," A&£ Biography, 1994; Musgrove
Log, October 13, 1969, SMC; Myra Breckinridge (1970).
27. Hamilton, "Raquel Welch," 47—5^0; Musgrove Log, October i £ , 17, 27,
i969,SMC;L47, May 2 1 , 1981.
28. NYT, November 23, 1969; West, Goodness (1976), 280.
29. LAT, July 2, 1970; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 27^; West, Goodness (1976),
279; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West, 274.
30. NYT, June 24, 2£, 1970; Evening Standard, June 24, 1970, BFI.
3 i. NYT, July $, 1970; Time, July 6, 1970, 70.
32. NYT, June 2^, July 19, 1970; West, Goodness (1976), 2 8 2 — 2 8 3 .
33. New York Post, July 4, 1970; LAT, February i o, 1971.
34. West, Goodness (1976), 286; Meryman, "Mae West," 62; "Mae West: The
Star That Will Not Dim!" 79; NYT, August 25, 1976; Atlas, "Mae," 7, 20; Mala-
chosky and Greene, Mae West, 2 ^ 2 .
3£. Gay News, July 20, 1970; Jennings, "Mae West," 76; LAT, November 17, 197^.
36. Musgrove Log, November 13, 1969, August 27, 1971, SMC.
37. Efron, "Television," 16—i 8; NYT, June 2£, 1970; Rona's Reports, Script, Sep-
tember i ^ , 1970, SMC.
38. Gay News, July 2o, 1970.
39. Musgrove Log, August 13, 14, 2 1 , October 6, 2 1 — 2 6 , 1969, November 17,
1976, SMC.
40. Hollywood Reporter, April 26, 1968; Musgrove Log, October 31—November
6, 8, 1969, December 10, 1969, and George Kirgo, "A Night With Mae West,"
Script, May 14, 1968, SMC.
41. Malachosky and Greene, Mae West, 281—308.
42. James Bacon, "The Photographic Memory of Mae West," Examiner, January
19, 1970; Sidney Skolsky, "Week in Review," Hollywood Citizen News, January 19,
1970; VR, January 19, 1970.
43. Hollywood Citizen News, December 4, 1969; LAT, February i o, 1971, May i o,
1972; International Herald Tribune, July 29, 1968, BFI.
44. Mae Day: The Masquers Club Salutes Mae West (Dionysus Empire, 1998); VR,
April i s , 1973.
Chapter Thirteen
1. William Scott Eyman, "Mae West: Hollywood Isn't Dead, It's Just Taking a
Siesta," Take One, September/October 1972, 21; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 261,
264—26^, 283—284, 296; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West, 2^0, 3 1 2 .
2. Mae West, The Pleasure Man (New York: Dell Books, 197^), 242.
NOTES TO PAGES 3 0 6 — 316 355
3. West, Sex, Health, and ESP, 13-18, 68-69.

4. West, Goodness (1976), 284—286; Johnson, "Snow White,"4o—48.
£. Washington Post, November 28, 1977; Johnson, "Snow White," 40.
6. Musgrove Log, January 20, March 25, May 19, June 10, 197^, SMC; Alan
Cartnal, "They Done It Wrong," New West, January 16, 1978, 44—47; Sunday Times,
June 6, 1976, Times Sunday Review, August 2 7 , 1976, BFI.
7. Musgrove to Oriental Theater, April 1976, SMC; Arthur Ungar, "What Do You
Say to a Legend (Mae West)?" Christian Science Monitor, April 2, 1976; Eels and Mus-
grove, Mae West, 290; Musgrove Log, August 2£, 1976, SMC;"Mae West Tribute,"USC.
8. Cartnal, "They Done," 44—48; Musgrove Log, June i £, October 6, November
17, December £, 10, 1976, SMC; NYT, August 2£, 1976.
9. Musgrove Log, October £, 6, December 4, £, 1976, SMC; Ken Hughes, "Act-
ing Had Nothing to Do With It,"L4r Calendar, February 23, 1997.
10. Patrick Pacheco, "Ladies and Gentlemen—The Lady, the Lions, and Her
Amazing Sextette "After Dark, May 1977, 48—£2.
11. Cartnal, "They Done,"46—47; Sunday Express, January 29, 1978, BFI; Hughes,
"Acting," 29.
i 2. Cartnal, "They Done," 47; Musgrove Log, December 13, 1976, SMC.
13. "Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her"; Malachosky and Greene, Mae
West, 330—33 i ; Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 303; Sextette (1979).
14. Washington Post, October 31, 1979; NYT, June 8, 24, 1979; Eels and Mus-
grove, Mae West, 303—308; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West, 3 3 2 — 3 3 3 .
i $. Pacheco, "Ladies and Gentlemen," 48; Cartnal, "They Done," 48; Hughes,
"Acting," 29; Ward, Bio-Bibliography, 48.
16. Sunday Express, January 29, 1978, BFI; Washington Post, August 24, 1979.
17. Musgrove Log, May 19, September 26, 1974, SMC; Henry Thody, "Mae
West Making a Sizable Return," Sketch, August 22, 1968, BFI; Eels and Musgrove,
Mae West, 28^-287; Boston Herald, August 3, 1979, MW/CF, HU.
1 8. Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 308—309.
19. Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 309—3 i 2; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West,
340—342; DeC, Mae West, November 2 2 , 1980, Los Angeles, California.
0o. LAT, November 23, 198o; NYT, November 23, 1980; VR, November 26, 1980.
2 i. Eels and Musgrove, Mae West, 31 2—3 i ^; Malachosky and Greene, Mae West, 343.
2 2. Head, Edith Head's Hollywood, 11, 2; James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography
of an Ex-Colored Man (1944; reprint New York: Penguin Books, 1990), i; Hollywood's
Legendary Homes (American Movie Classics, 1999).
Chapter Fourteen
1. I'm No Angel (1933); West, Goodness, i — 2 ; Schallert, "Go West," 32—33, 84.
2. NYT, June 4, 2000.
356 NOTES TO PAGES 3 1 7 —3 1 8
3. Roberts, "Diamond Lil," 64.

4. Roger Ebert, "When I'm Good, I'm Very Good, but When I'm Bad, I'm Bet-
ter," TV Guide, May i, 1982, 50—5 2.
5. Mikhail M. Bahktin, The Dialogic Imagination, trans. Caryl Emerson and
Michael Holquist (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), 1^9.
6. West, Wit and Wisdom, 110.
7. I'm No Angel (1933); Roberts, "Diamond Lil," 7 2.
8. Biery, "Part Two," 2o.
Bibliographical Essay
Throughout her over eighty years in show business, Mae West's life and career were
chronicled, at various times, in the media, public records, popular histories, and
academic studies. What follows is a selection of the major sources that provided the
foundation for her life story.
While some have disputed the authorship of works bearing West's name, she
clearly had a major hand in their creation. Playscripts are edited in her handwriting.
Additionally, her publicist, Stanley Musgrove, noted that she drafted scripts by
hand. Scripts for West's plays in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division in-
clude Catherine Was Great (1944), Come On Over/Embassy Row (1946), Diamond Lil
(draft 1928, 1964), The Drag (1927), Frisco Kate (1930), The Hussy ( 1 9 2 2 ) , The Plea-
sure Man (1928), The Ruby Ring (1921), SEX (1926), Sextette ( 1 9 ^ 2 , 1961), and The
Wicked Age (1927). Three of these plays are reprinted in Three Plays by Mae West: SEX,
The Drag, The Pleasure Man, ed. Lillian Schlissel (New York: Routledge, 1997). The
Shubert Archives holds Diamond Lil (final draft, 1928) and The Constant Sinner
093 1 )-
West's books are The Constant Sinner (4th printing of Babe Gordon, New York:
Macaulay, 1931), Diamond Lil ( 1 9 3 2 ; reprint New York: Sheridan House, 1940),
Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It: The Autobiography of Mae West (Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall, 19^9; New York: Manor Books, 1976), The Pleasure Man (New York:
Dell Books, 197^), Sex, Health, and ESP (London: Allen, 197^), and The Wit and Wis-
dom of Mae West, ed. Joseph Weintrab (New York: Avon Books, 1967). West also au-
thored "Ten Days and Five Hundred Dollars: The Experiences of a Broadway Star in
Jail," Liberty, August 2 o, 1927, and "Sex in the Theatre," Parade, September 1929.
MCA/Universal currently holds the rights to West's Paramount films and rereleased
them on video in 1993. They are Night After Night ( 1 9 3 2 ) , She Done Him Wrong
(1933), I'm No Angel (1933), Belle of the Nineties (1934), Goin' to Town (193^),
Klondike Annie (1936), Go West Young Man (1936), and Every Day's a Holiday (1937).
West's other films are The Heat's On (Columbia Pictures, 1943), Columbia Tristar
Home Video 1993 reissue; My Little Chickadee (Universal Studios, 1939),
MCA/Universal Home Video 1993 reissue; Myra Breckinridge (Twentieth Century-
Fox, 1970); and Sexette (Crown International Pictures, 1979), Rhino Home Video
1997 reissue.
358 B I B L I O G R A P H I C A L ESSAY
Other audio and visual material related to West includes the made-for-TV
movie Mae West (ABC, May 2, 1982) and the documentary "Mae West and the Men
Who Knew Her" (A&E Biography, 1994). The UCLA Film and Television Archives
holds "Mae West Meets Mister Ed" (Mister Ed, March i£, 1964, CBS). West's
recordings include Canned Laughter (Mind's Eye, 198^), Great Balls of Fire (MGM
Records, 1972), Mae Day: The Masquers Club Salutes Mae West (Dionysus Empire,
1998), Mae West on the Air: Rare Recordings (Sandy Hook Records, 198^), Mae West on
the Chase and Sanborn Hour (Radiola Records, 1990), Way Out West (Tower Records,
1966), and Wild Christmas (Dragonet, 1966).
There have been numerous studies of West's life and work. Accounts from two
members of her inner circle include the contemptuous Stanley Musgrove and George
Eels's Mae West: A Biography (New York: Morrow, 1982) and the laudatory Tim Mala-
chosky and James Greene's Mae West (Lancaster, Calif.: Empire, 1993). Of the most
recent, Maurice Leonard's Mae West: Empress of Sex (New York: Birch Lane Press,
1991) and Emily Wortis Leider's Becoming Mae West (New York: Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, 1997) perpetuate the image of West as sex symbol. Ramona Curry's Too Much
of a Good Thing: Mae West as a Cultural Icon (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1996), Marybeth Hamilton's When I'm Bad, I'm Better: Mae West, Sex, and American
Popular Entertainment (New York: HarperCollins, 199^), and Pamela Robertson's
Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp From Mae West to Madonna (Durham: Duke University
Press, 1996) are scholarly investigations of West's relationship to gay performance.
They build upon earlier works by Parker Tyler (The Hollywood Hallucination [New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1970}) and Susan Sontag ("Notes on 'Camp,' " in Against Inter-
pretation and Other Essays [New York: Delta, 1967]). Jon Tuska's The Complete Films of
Mae West (New York: Citadel, 1972) and Carol M. Ward's Mae West: A Bio-Bibliography
(Westport: Greenwood Press, 198^) are excellent resources on West's career.
In the 19305, newspapers, national magazines, and fan magazines (especially Pho-
toplay and Motion Picture) frequently featured West. Key early articles include Thyra
Sumner Winslow's "Diamond Mae," New Yorker, November 10, 1928, and Ruth
Beiry's "The Private Life of Mae West," Mo vie Classic, January—March, 1934. Later
interviews with West are in Diane Arbus, Diane Arbus Magazine Work (New York:
Aperture, 1984); Charlotte Chandler, The Ultimate Seduction (Garden City: Double-
day, 1984); Anne Taylor Fleming and Karl Fleming, The First Time (New York: Si-
mon & Schuster, 197^); and John Kobal, People Will Talk (New York: Knopf, 198^).
Also see C. Robert Jennings, "Mae West: A Candid Conversation," Playboy, January
1971; Lewis H. Lapham, "Let Me Tell You About Mae West," Saturday Evening Post,
November 14, 1964; Helen Lawrenson, "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ceiling: How'm I
Doing?" Esquire, July 1967; and Steven Roberts, "76—And Still Diamond Lil," New
York Times Magazine, November 2, 1969.
Context for West and her family's New York roots can be found in Edwin G.
Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York to 1898 (New York: Ox-
B I B L I O G R A P H I C A L ESSAY 359
ford University Press, 1999). On Brooklyn, see William L. Felter, Historic Green
Point (Greenpoint: Green Point Savings Bank, c. 1919) and Grace Gleuck and Paul
Gardner, Brooklyn: People and Places, Past and Present (New York: Abrams, 1991). In
addition, New York politics is discussed in Oliver E. Allen, The Tiger: The Rise and
Fall of Tammany Hall (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1993) and George Walsh, Gentle-
man Jimmy Walker: Mayor of the Jazz Age (New York: Praeger, 1974). New York's sub-
cultures and underworld are explored in Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York
( 1 9 2 7 ; reprint New York: Capricorn Books, 1970); Christine Stansell, City of
Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789—1860 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1987); Timothy J. Gilfolyle, City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commer-
cialization of Sex, 1790—1920 (New York: Norton, 1992); Luc Sante, Low Life: Lures
and Snares of Old New York (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1991); and Alvin F.
Harlow, Old Bowery Days: The Chronicles of a Famous Street (New York: Appleton,
193 i). Also see George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Mak-
ing of the Gay Male World, 1890—1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994) and Ann
Douglas, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s (New York: Farrar, Straus
& Giroux, 199^).
For appraisals of West's relationship with the black community, see George Had-
dad-Garcia, "Mae West, Everybody's Friend," Black Stars, April 1981; Robert John-
son, "Mae West: Snow White Sex Queen Who Drifted,"Jet, July 2j, 1974; and
"Sexiest Night Club Act," Ebony, November 19^4. Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s discussion
of the African-American tradition of signifying in The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of
Afro-American Literary Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) provides
groundwork for understanding West's subversive humor. For general discussion of
African-American history, culture, and signification, see Roger D. Abrahams,
Singing the Master: The Emergence of African-American Culture in the Plantation South
(New York: Penguin Books, 1992); Nichols Lemann, The Promised Land: Black Migra-
tion and How It Changed America (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990); Lawrence W.
Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought From Slavery to
Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977); and Mel Watkins, On the Real
Side: Laughing, Lying, and Signifying: The Underground Tradition of African-American Hu-
mor That Transformed Culture, From Slavery to Richard Pryor (New York: Simon & Schus-
ter, 1994). Examinations of African-American music and dance are Brenda Dixon
Gottschild, Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Con-
texts (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996); William Howland Kenney, Chicago Jazz: A
Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); Eileen Southern, The
Music of Black Americans: A History (2d ed., New York: Norton, 1983); and Jean
Stearns and Marshall Stearns, Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance (2d
ed., New York: Da Capo Press, 1994).
Houston Baker's Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984) provides a theoretical framework for
the blues as a rebellious force. For African-Arnerican women and blues, see Hazel
Carby, "It Jus Be's Dat Way Sometime: The Sexual Politics of Women's Blues," in
Gender and Discourse: The Power of Talk (Norwood: Ablex, 1988); Angela Y. Davis,
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma"Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1998); and Daphne Duval Harrison, Black Pearls: Blues
Queens of the 1920s (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988).
West was strongly influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. Core works on that
period are Nathan Huggins, Harlem Renaissance (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1971); David Levering Lewis, When Harlem Was in Vogue (New York: Vintage
Books, 1982); and George Hutchinson, The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 199^). Key participants are examined in
Arna Bontemps, ed. The Harlem Renaissance Remembered (New York: Dodd, Mead,
1972); Bruce Kellner, Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent Decades (Norman: University
of Oklahoma Press, 1968); and Eleanore Van Notten, Wallace Thurman's Harlem Re-
naissance (Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1994). Marianna Torgovnick, Gone Prim-
itive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990)
discusses primitivism, which was popular not only among Harlem Renaissance fig-
ures but within American society in general.
For analysis of racial identity and the representation of African-Americans in U.S.
culture, see Janet Brown, "The 'Coon-Singer' and the 'Coon Song': A Case Study of
the Performer-Character Relationship "Journal of American Culture (Spring/Summer
1984); Laura Doyle, Bordering on the Body: The Racial Matrix of Modern Fiction and Cul-
ture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Was Huck
Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices (New York: Oxford University Press,
r
993); George Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-
American Character and Destiny, 1817—1914 (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University
Press, 1987); Susan Gubar, Racechanges: White Skin, Black Face in American Culture (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1997); Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White
(New York: Routledge, 199^); Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the
American Working Class (New York: Oxford University Press, 199^); Toni Morrison,
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (New York: Vintage Books,
1992); David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American
Working Class (London: Verso, 1991); Alexander Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White
Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in the Nineteenth Century (London: Verso, 1990);
and Werner Sollors, Neither Black nor White yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial
Literature (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
West was nurtured and performed in almost all forms of late nineteenth- and
early twentieth-century popular culture. General discussions of public amusements
include Lewis A. Erenberg, Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of
American Culture, 1890—1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984); David
Nasaw, Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements (New York: Basic Books,
B I B L I O G R A P H I C A L ESSAY 361
1993); Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century
New York (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986); and Stanley Walker, The Night
Club Era (New York: Stokes, 1933). Discussions of boxing are in Gerald Early, Culture
of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture (Hopewell:
Ecco Press, 1994); Elliot Gorn, The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986); and Jeffrey Sammons, Beyond the Ring: The
Role of Boxing in American Society (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988).
Discussions of early burlesque are Robert Allen, Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and
American Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991) and Irving
Zeidman, The American Burlesque Show (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967). For
vaudeville, see John E. DiMeglio, Vaudeville USA (Bowling Green: Bowling Green
University Popular Press, 1973); Joe Laurie Jr., Vaudeville: From the Honky- Tonks to the
Palace (New York: Holt, 19^3); Joe Laurie Jr. and Abel Green, Show Biz From Vaude-
ville to Video (New York: Holt, 19^1); Charles Samuels and Louise Samuels, Once
Upon a Stage: The Merry World of Vaudeville (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974); and
Robert Snyder, The Voice of the City: Vaudeville and Popular Culture in New York (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1989).
Stock companies provided West with training. Useful early works are Marian
Spitzer, "Ten-Twenty-Thirty: The Passing of the Popular Priced Circuit," Saturday
Evening Post, August 22, 192^; Edward William Mamman, The Old Stock Company
School of Acting: A Study of the Boston Museum (Boston: Trustees of the Public Library,
194^); and Arthur Ruhl, "Ten-Twenty-Thirty," Outlook, August 19, 1911.
West first o
garnered national attention on Broadway. J
Discussions of New York
theater include Brooks Atkinson, Broadway (New York: Macmillan, 1970); Gerald
Bordman, American Musical Revue: From The Passing Show to Sugar Babies (New
York: Oxford University Press, 198^); Louis Botto, At This Theatre: An Informal His-
tory of New York's Legitimate Theatres (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1984); Allen
Churchill, The Theatrical Twenties (New York: McGraw-Hill, 197^); Brooks McNa-
mara, The Shuberts of Broadway: A History Drawn From the Collections of the Shubert
Archive (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); and Jerry Stagg, The Brothers
Shubert (New York: Random House, 1968). For a useful study of women in early
theater, see Faye Dudden, Women in the American Theatre: Actresses and Audiences,
Ijgo—lSjO (New Haven: Yale niversity
U Press, 1994). Kaier Curtin's "We Can Al-
ways Call Them Bulgarians": The Emergence of Lesbians and Gay Men on the American Stage
(Boston: Alyson, 1987) explores the representation of homosexuality in theater.
Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies (id ed.,
New York: Vintage Books, 1994) provides a general history of U.S. film, the venue
that propelled West to international fame. On studio politics, see Neal Gabler, An
Empire of Their Own: How Jews Invented Hollywood (New York: Doubleday, 1988) and
Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era (New
York: Holt, 1988). Studies concentrating on film during the 19305 include Tino
Balio, ed., Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise (Berkeley: Univer-
sity of California Press, 199^); Andrew Bergman, We're in the Money: Depression Amer-
ica and Its Films (New York: New York University Press, 1971); and Henry Jenkins,
What Made Pistachio Nuts? Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1992).
West receives extensive attention in works on censorship: Gregory Black, Holly-
wood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1994); Gerald Gardner, The Censorship Papers: Movie Censorship Letters
from the Hays Office, 1934 to 1968 (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1987); Leonard J. Leff
and Jerold Simmons, Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production
Code from the 1920s to the 19605 (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990); James Skin-
ner, The Cross and the Cinema: The Legion of Decency and the National Catholic Office for
Motion Pictures, 1933—19JO (Westport: Praeger, 1993); and Frank Walsh, Sin and
Censorship: The Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry (New Haven: Yale Uni-
versity Press, 1996).
Laura Mulvey's theory of spectatorship in Visual and Other Pleasures (Blooming-
ton: Indiana University Press, 1989), which contends that Hollywood films by male
directors permit men to project themselves into the male protagonists that subju-
gate female characters, has strongly influenced studies of women's images in film.
Other explorations of women and cinema include Molly Haskell, From Reverence to
Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (New York: Penguin Books, 1973); Lea Ja-
cobs, The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman in Film, 1928—1942 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 199^); and Marjorie Rosen, Popcorn Venus: Women,
Movies, and the American Dream (New York: Avon Books, 1973).
Sources on race and film include Daniel Bernardi, ed., The Birth of Whiteness: Race
and the Emergence of the U.S. Cinema (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,
1996); Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History
of Blacks in American Films (New York: Continuum, 1990); and Thomas Cripps, Slow
Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
General theoretical works exploring cultural rebellion include Mikhail M. Bahk-
tin, The Dialogic Imagination, trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1981); Mikhail M. Bahktin, Rabelais and His World, trans.
Helene Iswolsky (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984); and Stuart Hall,
"Encoding/Decoding," in Culture, Media, Language (London: Hutchinson, 1980). For
historical overviews of aspects of the twentieth century, see Lynn Dumenil, Modern
Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s (New York: Hill & Wang, 199^);
Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s (1931; reprint
New York: Perennial Library, 1964); Terry Cooney, Balancing Acts: American Thought
and Culture in the 1930s (New York: Twayne, 199^); and William Chafe, The Unfin-
ished Journey: America Since WWII (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
Index
A La Broadway, 32, 33, 36, 144 Ball, Lucille, 259, 276

Abbott, Charlie, 42 "Ballin" the Jack" (song), 44
Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, 304 Banton, Joab H., 83, 89, 119, 173, 199
Actors' Equity, i 11, 113, 178 Banton, Travis, 153, 173
Actor's Guild, 5 i Barnes, Eleanor, 214
After Dark (magazine) , 3 1 2 Barrett, Rona, 300
"After You're Gone" (song), 304, 308 Barry, Gene, 247
age, 2 2 5 , 240-241, 2 7 2 , 299 Barrymore, Ethel, 29
The Albatross. See SEX Barrymore, John, 240
Alfred the Great, 4 Beaton, Cecil, 33
All God's Chillun Got Wings, i 36 Beatty, Warren, 307
"All I Want Is Just a Little Lovin" (song), 5 2 , 5 4 Beavers, Louise, 153, 160, 270, 2 7 2 , 279
Ameche, Don, 230—231 Beery, Wallace, 240
American, i 3 8 Belasco, David, 102
American Circuit, 45 Belasco Theater, 141
American Roof Theater, 44 Belle of the Nineties, 190—197, 204, 266
"And Then" (song), 40 Benchley, Robert, 75
Anton, Joe, 143, 147 Bergen, Edgar, 229—2 3 i
"Any Kind of Man" (song), 52 Berle, Milton, 58-59, 256
Apollo Theater, 11 5 Bernhardt, Sarah, 262
Arbus, Diane, 290 Berry, Noah, Sr., 153
Arden, Mavis, 2 2 0 - 2 2 1 Bertini, Amedeo, 119, i 2 i
Armstrong, Louis, 2 2 7 — 2 2 8 , 245, 279 Billboard, 38, 56
Arnaz, Desi, 276 Biltmore Theater, 258
Arnold, Edward, 173 birth control, 3 i
The Art of Love (film), 292 Birth of a Nation, 169
Astaire, Adele, 68 "Bits of Musical Comedy—Mae West assisted by Harry
Astaire, Fred, 68 Richman," 59
Atkinson, Brooks, 267 Black and Gold (restaurant), 168
autobiography. See Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It Black and White, i 24, 125
(autobiography) blackface, 2 2 - 2 3
awards and honors, 304, 3 i 2 blackness, 97—98, 1 2 2 , 257, 307
Blackwell, (Mr.) (fashion critic), 246—247
Babcock, Muriel, 144-144 blues: as foundation for West's stage persona, 48; in She
Babe Gordon. See also The Constant Sinner: male authority Done Him Wrong, 157; as source of inspiration, 194,
in, 127; production of, 125—1 3 i ; racial issues, 278; West as blues singer, 148
i 27—134; Sumner's review of, 139; tricksterism in, bodyguards, 182
'34 Bogle, Donald, 159
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" (song), 276 Bohm, Frank, 37, 38, 40, 43, 44, 45
Baddot USA (TV series), 308 Bolan, James S., 88-89
Bacon, James, 293 Boland, Mary, 2 2 0
Baikoff, Vladimir, 187, 199, 2 2 1 , 288 Boogey, 170, 174, 177, 182, 268
Baker, Frankie, 108, 193 "Boom, Boom" (song), 291
Baker, Herb, 308 Borden, Cleo, 3
Baker, Houston, 48, 78 Boston Herald, 195
Baker, Josephine, 135 Bow, Clara, 161
Bakhtin, Mikhail, 2 5 2 , 317 Bowery, 98
363
364 INDEX
boxing, 163,16; 3 1 2 ; plans for rock opera, 293; production of,

Braddock, James, 207 248—253; studio's unwillingness to bankroll, 240;
Bradford, Perry, 68, 69, 109, 158 success of, 258
Bradley, Bud, 68 Catholic Church, 152, 170
Bradley, Tom, 300 Cavett, Dick, 308
Brand, Sybil, 305, 307 censorship. See also Breen, Joseph; Hays, Will; Produc-
Breen, Joseph, 203, 210; appointment of, 184—i85; tion Code: ban on She Done Him Wrong and I'm No
attempt to control signification, 231, 234; on banned Angel, 265, 266; British censorship of West's work,
films, 266; public response to censorship, i 86; 259; censors criticized for laxity, i 70—17 i, 195,
screening Belle of the Nineties, 191; screening Gather- 2 18; of Diamond Lil, i j i ; difficulty of controlling
ineWasGreat, 244; screening Every Day's a Holiday, signification, 172—173; freedom of speech, i 2 i; Los
2 2 7 , 2 3 2 ; screening Go West Young Man, 2 2 2 — 2 2 3 ; Angeles Times on, 170; of Myra Breckinridge, 3oi;pub-
screening Gain 'to Town, 204; screening It Ain't No Sin, lie demands for, 89—90, 170—171; rejection of It
i 89; screening Klondike Annie, 213, 2 14—2 15; screen- Ain't No Sin, i8<);ofSEX, 7 9, 9 2; of She Done Him
ingMy Little Chickadee, 236—237; screening Now I'm a Wrong, 155; Sylvia on West's decline and, 2 2 3 ; on
Lady, 199; screening Personal Appearance, 22o television, 2 8 2 ; touring as escape from, 234—23;;
Brentano, Lowell, 124, 125, 13;, 170 West's fight against, 196—197, 209—210, 214—215,
Brice, Fanny, 3 1 , 3 7 2 2 2 ; William Randolph Hearst and, 217
Briggs, Dan, 307, 308, 309, 311 Chapman, John, 249
Brinkley, Nell, 42 charity, 93—94, 163, 181 — 182
British Royal Air Force, 241 Chase and Sanborn Hour (radio program), 2 29—23 2
Broadway: Come On L/p's failure to get to, 2^9; early Chauncey, George, 8 2 , 8 6
career on, 39, 60, 82; performing shimmy on, The Chesterfield Supper Club (radio show), 266
52—53, 56—57; singing Gibson Girls, 16 Chicago, West's arrival in, 47—48
Brooks, Alan, 120 Chicago Daily Tribune, 143, 283
Brooks, Sheldon, 39, 69 Chicago Defender, 245
Broun, Heywood, 102 child molestation, 24
Brown, John Mack, 186 Chinese Theater, 174
Brown, John Mason, 102, 156, 265, 266—267 Chrisman, J. Eugene, 206
Bruin Theater, 311 Chriss, Jack, 209
Buckley, Joseph B., 2 i g Christian Science Monitor, 151
Burgoyne, Olive, 135 Citizen-News, 2:8
Burkan, Nathan, 113, 115, 120, 1 2 1 Clarendon, Hal, 18, 19—20,95
Burke, Billie, 276 Clark, W. V., 182-183
burlesque, 28, 29, 32—33, 36 Clef Club, 39, 60
Burmeister, R. A. "Bud," 65, 202 Cleopatra, 137
Burns, George, 3 i 2 clothing. See wardrobe
Burton, David, 145 Coconut Grove, 283
Byrne, John J., 71 Cohan, George M., 16, 27, 33, 41, 104
Cohen, Allen, 135
Galloway, Cab, 193 Cohen, Emanuel: exile from Paramount, 200; giving
"camp," 87 West artistic freedom, 2 2 1 ; meeting with Cohen in
"Can House Blues" (song), 49 Chicago, 219—220; opening Every Day's a Holiday,
Canarsie Music Hall, 28 229—230; Paramount severed connections with,
Canby, Vincent, 297-298 233-234; scripts for West, 235; on West's Cather-
"Can't Be Bothered" (song), 244 ine the Great, 2 26
Capitol Theater, 55 Cohen, Harry, 71, 90
Capone, Al, 145 Cohen, Morrie, 174, 186, 189, 242
The Captive, Si, 85, 88—89 Cohen, Morris, 182
Carey, Johnny, 67, i 27 Colette (critic), 2 3 2
Carmichael, Hoagy, 228 Collier, Constance, 103
Carter, Ruby, 190 Columbia Burlesque Circuit, 29
Castle, Irene, 39 Columbia Pictures, 244
Castle, Vernon, 39 Columbia University, 161
Catagonia Club, 68 Come On Up, 254—259, 268, 273
Catherine the Great: West as "pre-incarnation," 244; "Come Up and See Me Sometime" (song), 261
West's admiration for, i 37; West's desire to portray, Como, Perry, 266
226,235 Comstock, Ada L., 116
Catherine Was Great: New York Times telegram, 246; pla- Conference Board of Theater, i 39
giarism court case, 260—261; plans for film version, Conference of Catholic Bishops, 184
INDEX 365
Connors, Chuck, I, i 20 December and Mae, 236

Connors, Chuck, II, i 20 Decency League, 204
Constant Productions Incorporated, i 35 Deiro, Guido, 43-46, 47, 277
The Constant Sinner: Babe Gordon renamed, i 3 c; Confer- Deiro, Pietro, 43—44
ence Board of Theater's response to, i 39; economy Delker, Christiana (grandmother), 9 , 2 5
and, 140—141; internal racial conflict reflected in, Delker, Jacob (grandfather), 9, 16
279; novel, 266; rebellious status of, 1 3 7 — 1 3 8 ; show Delker, Matilda (Tillie). See West, Tillie (Matilda
canceled, 143—144; success of, i 36—i 37; unmen- Delker, mother)
tioned in autobiography, 278; use of Pearl character, Delta Kappa Alpha fraternity, 292
160; West's statements on, 140 Deluise, Dom, 308
contract with Paramount, i j o The Demi Tasse Review, 5 j
contradictions, 110, i j 8 Dempsey, Dolly, 30^, 314
controversy, i 3 8 Depression, 116, 140, i j o , 161, 162—163, ' 6 j
Con way, Jack, i i i Deslys, Gaby, 33-37, 59, 117, 2 2 1
cooch dance, 28, 36,49, 175 Diamond, Legs (gangster), 66
coon-shouting, 23, 28, 29, 194 Diamond Lil: as alter ego of West, 110, 2 7 2 , 288;
Cooper, Alice, 308 banned from the screen, 117; Catherine Was Great
Cooper, C. D., 182 compared to, 2jo; censorship issues, 116; contract
Cooper, Gary, i 6 j , 169, 200, 259 for novel, 142; copyright issues, 103—104; film ver-
Copley, Julia (great-grandmother), 4, 2 j sion of, 2 9 3 ; Great Britain tour, 2^9—260; novel,
Copley, Martin (great-grandfather), 4, 6 144, 266; performing soliloquy from, 304, 313;
Copley, Mary Jane (grandmother), 4—5, 6 , 2 5 production of, 9 9 — 1 0 2 ; racial elasticity of, 2 7 3 ; res-
Copley, William, 6 urrected as She Done Him Wrong, i j i , i c6; reviews,
Coral, Tito, 200 102; revival of, 2 6 1 — 2 6 2 , 26^—266, 316; as Ruby
corset usage, i i { , 1 6 ^ , 2 6 3 Red, i j i ; signification in, 2 8 1 ; success of, 104— 106,
Coslow, Sam, 187 i i o; threat of jail sentence, i 2 i ; West's health issues
Cotton Club, 67 during, i i 5
court cases, 89, 92, 1 8 2 , 260—261 "Diamond Mae" (biographical essay), i i o
Covan, Willie, 68, 69 dichotomies of West, 3 16
Coward, Noel, 102 Dietrich, Marlene, 161, 168—169, ! 7 J > ! 9°>
Cox, Ida, 161 226, 233
Coy, James J., 119 Dinah East (film), 300—301
Grain, Thomas T. C., 119 Dirty Blonde (play), 3 16
Crawford, Joan, 2 3 3 District Attorney, 83
"Creole Man" (song), 185 divorce, 5 i , 2 0 2 , 206
Criss, Jack, 183 Doelger, Henry, 7, 268
Crosby,
J'
Bin O'
p. 200 Doelger, Jacob, 7 , 2 5
Crown International , 3 1 1 Doelger, Peter, 7
crying, 14-15, 302-303 "Doin" the Grizzly Bear" (song), 291
"Cuddle Up and Cling to Me" (song), 37 Dolly Sisters, 37
Cukor, George, 2 9 2 , 302 Donnellan, George (judge), 9 1 , 9 2
Cullen, Countee, r 3 2 Donnellan, (judge), 92
cultural theft, 69 double entendre, 87
Curb, Mike, 291, 302 Douglas, Kirk, 241
Curtis, Tony, 308 Downing, Robert, 250
The Drag: auditions, 82; censorship issues, 90, i 2 i ; crit-
Daily Mirror, 80 ics of, 8j; production of, 83, 84—88; signification in,
Daily News, 249 87; as a sympathetic treatment of homosexuality,
Dalton, Timothy, 309 299; use of'Come up and see me" quote, 109;
Daly's Sixty-third Street Theater, 72 West's attempt to resurrect, 11 i
"Dancing-Prancing" (dance music), 38 drag queens, 11 3
Davies, Marion, 2 17 Dressier, Marie, 194
Davis, Bette, 305 Du Barrv, Madame, i 37
Davis, George, 148 DuBois, Richard, 270, 273
de Lignemare, William, 8j-86, 88 The Duchess, 86, 88
de Scaffa, Francesca, 276 Dunn, Joseph E. P., 208-209
Dean, Harry, 208 Dupont, Paul, 60, 61
Dean, Mamie, 52 Durant, Jack, 188
Debs,' Eugene,
& ' 2 c6
j Durante, Jimmy, j8
Decca Records, 266 Dyer, Rod, 3 10—3 11
366 INDEX
Earhart, Amelia, 242 services, 3 14; at Masquers Club honors, 304; in My

East Lynne, 11 Little Chickadee, 237; in She Done Him Wrong,
"Easy Rider" (song), i j 2 i j8—i 59; at USC honorary banquet, 2 9 2 — 2 9 3
Ebony, 2 7 2 , 306 freedom of speech. See censorship
Edgewater Beach Playhouse, 282 Freezer, Herbert J., 261
Edison, Feets (gangster), 66 Freud, Sigmund, 82
Edwin, John, i 2 Friars' Club, 284
Eichberg, Robert, 206 Friedman, Edward "Happy," 182
Eiferman, George, 270, 2 7 2 , 2 7 3 , 274. Frisco, Joe, 52
El Fey Club, 67 Frisco Kate, 1 2 2 — 1 2 3
Eldridge, E.P., 34 Fryer, Robert, 293, 297
The Elite No. 1,49, 278
Ellington, Duke, 67, 186—187, ' 9 ! > '93> '94, 2 79 Gable, Clark, 276
Ellis, Dick. See Blackwell, (Mr.) (fashion critic) Gabriel, Gilbert, 263
Ellis, Havelock, 82 Gaites, Joseph M., 135
Eisner, Edward, 7 2 , 85 Garbo, Greta, 1 6 1 , 2 3 3 , 3 0 5
Eltinge, Julian, 83 Gardner, Ava, 2 7 2
Errol, Leon, 37 Garland, Robert, 100
Esquire, 2 7 2 Garvey, Lew, 198
ethnicity, i 2 2 Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., 13, 106, 132
Europe, James Reese, 39 Gay News, 300
Evans, Delight, 239 Gayety Girls, 29
Every Day's a Holiday, 2 2 7—2 34 Gaynor, Janet, 233
"Everyone Shimmy Now" (song), 53 Geiss, Harry S., 91
exercise, i 6 j gender issues. See also sex: in Diamond Lil, 106—107;
exotic animals, 170 gender roles, 177—178, 240; in The Ruby Ring, 58; in
extortion threats, 207—208, 241 She Done Him Wrong, ifj— i j8; West on, 166
The George Raft Story, 274
Family Theater (Pittsburgh), 40 George Spelvin Award, 304
fans, 160—161, 164, 304 Gibson, Charles Dana, 42
father. See West, Jack (John Junior, father) Gibson, Harry, 257—2^8
Fauntleroy, Little Lord, 2 i Gibson Girls, 16, 42
Federal Communications Commission, 2 3 1 — 2 3 2 Giler, David, 294, 296
Feil, Murray, 144, 140 Gilligan's Island, 289
Fellini, Federico, 292 Gilman, Don, 23 i
female impersonators, 139, 148 The Ginger Box Review, 60
feminism. See also gender issues; sex: as feminist icon, Go West Young Man, 2 2 0 — 2 2 3
317; sexual liberation of flappers, 167; West on Coin'to Town, 3, 198—206, 266
commodification of women, 97; West's stance on, Goldburg, Young, 29
107, 299 "A Good Man's Hard to Find" (song), 261
Fetchit, Stepin, 222 "Good Night Nurse" (song), 39
Fields, W. C., 236—239, 290 Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It (autobiography),
figure, 76, 164, i6j, 2 2 3 — 2 2 4 276-280, 298, 306
Film Censorship Division, New York Department of The Gophers (gang), 66
Education, i j i Gotham Theater (Brooklyn), i 8
Fitts, Buron, i 83 Granlund, Nils, 64
flappers, 167 Grant, Gary, 153, 154, 173, 270
Flatow, Leon, 64 Grasso, Sal, 31 o
A Florida Enchantment, 29—30, 2oi — 2 o 2 Gray, Gilda, 53
Florodora Girls, 16 Gray, Thomas, 55
Flynn, Edward, 89, 106 Great Balls of Fire (album), 291, 3 0 2 , 3 04
Folies Bergere, 3 2 Great Migration, 47, 49
"Following the Fleet" (skit), 71 Great White Way, 60, 72
Fox Circuit, 29, 1 2 2 Greene, Graham, 223
Foy, Eddie, 16, 18, 40 Greenwich Village Theater, 61
Frame, Janet, 164 Griffith, D. W, 151, 169
"Frankie and Johnny" (song): in advertisement, 266; on Gubar, Susan, 23
Backlot USA appearance, 308; in "Bits of Musical Guinan, Texas: considered for Night After Night, 143; at
Comedy," 59; in Catherine Was Great, 2^0; in Diamond Diamond Lit debut, i o 2; Madden's relationship with,
Lil, i o i , 108, 261; at dinner party, 3 13; at funeral 67; at obscenity trial, i 14—11 j; relationship with
INDEX 367
West, 1 2 1 ; Voiler's relationship with, 145; Walker's Hepburn, Katharine, 233

relationship with, So; West's relationship with, 81, Hitler, Adolph, 239, 279
182 Hogan, William, 27—28
Guinan, Tommy, 99 Holly, Jay, 11 3
"A Guy What Takes His Time" (song), 152 Hollywood, 146
Hollywood Confidential, 275—276, 278, 279
The Hairy Ape, 60 Hollywood Hotel (radio show), 2 i 7—2 18
Hall, Gladys, 186 The Hollywood Palace, 289
Hall, Leonard, 52 Hollywood Reporter, 204, 2 3 3 , 2 3 9 , 308
Hall, Mordaunt, 180 "Holy Joe," 89
Hallelujah, I'm a Saint, 209 "Home Sweet Home," 77
Hammell, John, 185, 199, 210 homosexuality, 15, 82—83, 85—86, 299—300
Hammerstein, Arthur, 52, 140 "Honey let yo' drawers hang down low" (song), 70
Hammerstein, Willie, 44 Hoover, Herbert, 161
Hammond, Percy, 77, 80, 96, 102, 104 Hoover, J. Edgar, 208
Handy, W. C., 68 Hopkins, Miriam, 163
Hanks, Nancy, 98 Hopper, Hedda, 163, 188, 270
"Happy Birthday 2 i" (song), 291 "How Come You Do Me Like You Do" (song), 266
"Hard to Handle" (song), 295 "How Miss West Won World Peace" (song), 291
Harding, Warren G., 256 Howard, Gertrude, 173-174, 178
Harding Hotel, 66, 67, 98, 115 Howard, Jack, 262
Hargitay, Mickey, 274, 275, 277 Howe, Leo, i 20
Harlem, 127, 129, 168 Hudson, Rock, 276
Harlem Breakfast Club, 133, 136, 138, 139 Huggins, Nathan, i 3 i
Harlem (play), 136 Hughes, Elinor, 195
Harlem Renaissance, 68, 75, 131 — 132 Hughes, Ken, 309, 310, 3 1 2
Harrison Reports, 154 Hughes, Langston, 132
Hart, Vincent, i 74 "Hula Lou," 6 j
Harvard University, 304 Hunter, Ross, 2 9 2 , 314
Harvey, Terence, i 20 Hurston, Zora Neale, 70, 75
Hays, Will: ban on selected works, 117, 143, 150, 151, Hussey, Jimmy, 56
2oo, 26j; criticized for laxity, 170-171, 195, 2 1 8 ; The Hussy, 6 1 — 6 2 , 6 3 - 6 4 , 7 6 , 7 7
public complaints about indecency, 89—90; scope of
power, 152; screening Belle of the Nineties, 195; "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" (song), 280
screening Every Day's a Holiday, 2 27; screening Coin' "I Found a New Way to Go to Town" (song), 179
To Town, 204; screening I'm No Angel, 174, 176—177, "I Got What It Takes But it Breaks My Heart to Give it
179; screening It Ain't No Sin, 189; screening Away" (song), 78
Klondike Annie, 209-2 i o, 2 i 3-2 15; screening Night "I Like to Do All Day What I Do All Night" (song), 2 70
After Night, 149; screening SEX, 169; screening She "I Love It" (song), 2 9
Done Him Wrong, 154; on She Done Him Wrong, i 56; "I Never Broke Nobody's Heart When I Said Goodbye"
struggles with studio heads, 171 — 172; vigilance in (song), 65
monitoring West, 170, 173, 196, 198; West's "I Want a Cave Man"(song), 60
response to, 196—197 "I Want to Be Loved in an Old fashioned Way" (song),
Hayward, Billie, 279 46
"He May Be Your Man but He Comes to See Me Some- "I Want You, I Need You" (song), 173
times," 69, 109 "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" (song), 101,
I0
Head, Edith: assigned to West, 153—154; costumes 7 > 3'4
incorporated into fashion, 166; designs for A Night "I'm a Night School Teacher" (song), 60
With Mae West, 302; designs for Myra Breckinridge, 293, "I'm an Occidental Woman in an Oriental Mood for
296; designs for Sextette, 2 8 2 , 308, 309;praiseof Love" (song), 2 1 3 , 215
West, 31 2, 31 5; on Sextette's poor showing, 3 i o; I'm No Angel: censorship issues, 172—174, 176—177,
shopping with West, 305; on West's literacy and 265, 266; debut, i 74; development, 170-1 71; pro-
articulation, 20; on West's refusal to wear pearls, 160 duction, i 74—1 81; release of film, 304
headdress, 64 "I'm the Queen of the Bitches" (song), i 19
health: colonies, 306; diabetes, 263, 289; exercise, i6j; imitators of West, 140, 161
exhaustion, 264-265; frailty, 307; strokes, 313 impersonators, 139, 148, 288
Hearn, Edward, 120, 174, 186 Indianapolis Star, 2 2 3 , 232
Hearst, William Randolph, 80, 138, 206, 217 Indrisano, Johnny, 2 0 7 , 2 2 1
Heat's On (film), 244, 246 interracial relationships. See miscegenation
Held, Anna, 3 i Interstate Vaudeville Circuit, 65
3 68 INDEX
Intime Club, 114 language. See also signification: double-entendre use, 87,
Ireland, Richard, 293 180; Eisner's influence on West's, 73;"! wouldn't
It Ain't No Sin, 183—187, 188, 189 even lift my veil for that guy," 227;"! wouldn't let
"It's an Awful Way to Make a Living" (song), 39 him touch me with a ten-foot pole," 2 2 7 ; "Is that a
It's Not History, It's Herstory (TV series), 268—269 gun in your pocket or are you happy to see me?,"
"It's So Nice to Have a Man Around the House" (song), 219; linguistic games used by West, 109, 129, 238;
28i power of, 62; subversive use of, 270; "They done me
"I've Got a Style All My Own" (song), 42, 44 wrong," 158; "Why don't you come up sometime,"
109; "You can be had," i $8
]. Walter Thompson Company, 2 3 1 - 2 3 2 Lapham, Lewis, 289—290, 298
Jackson, Bea"Hot Story Telling," 69, 94, 124, 13$ Lapin, David, 2 6 2 , 263, 264, 277
Janios, George, 208 Lasky, Jesse, 32
A Jaunt injoyland, 45 Laughlin, Harry, 36
Jefferson Market Women's Prison, 93 Lawrence, Fay, 246
Jeffries, Herbert, 276 Lawrenson, Helen, 291
Jessel, George, 285 Le Baron, William: allowing West to rewrite her role,
Jet, 2 2, 306 146; producing Diamond Lil, i j i ; producing I'm No
jewelry theft, 182 Angel, 173; proposing Herstory series, 268—269; rela-
Johnson, Arthur, i 87 tionship with West, 144, 154; release of Lubitsch,
Johnson, James P., 68 219; writing A La Broadway, 3 2
Johnson, James Weldon, 1 3 2 , 315 Lee, Florence, 135
Johnson, Robert E., 306 Lee, Larry, 261, 304
Jolson, Al, 34 Legion of Decency, 184, 218, 2 3 1 , 242
Jones, Daisy, 234 Leitzbach, Adeline, 6 1 , 7 1
Jones, Grover, 236 Lenzen, Herman, 120
Jones, William "Gorilla," 207, 275 Lertora, Joseph, 64
"jooks,"49 Liberty magazine, 94
Jordon, Gus, 159 Life, 71, 240—241, 249, 2 6 2 , 263
Joy, Colonel Jason, 11 7 "Light My Fire" (song), 291
Juliet of the Spirits (film), 292 Lincoln, Abraham, 5,98
Lind, Marie, 288
Kane, Michael, 198, 260 Linder, Jack, 98, 99, 103, i i j
Kansas, vaudeville in, 65 Linder, Mark, 98, 103—104, 115, 2 0 2 , 241
Kansas City Star, i 78 Little Red Riding Hood, 2 i
Kaufman, Al, 145-146 Lockridge, Richard, 102
Keaton, Buster, 2 2 Lodge, John C., 115
Keith, B. F., 44 Loew Circuit, 37, 43
Keith Circuit: Bohm's employment at, 38; success of, Longstreet, Stephen, 276
39; Wayburn and Ziegfeld encounter, 3 i ; West Look, 296
described by agent of, 41; West's engagements with, Loos, Anita, 189
40,44,61,65 Lopez, Vincent, 188, 273
Kellerman, Annette, 33 Lord, Father Daniel, 152, 170
Kelly, Jack (Rev.), 243, 293 Los Angeles Daily News, 224
Keneally, Patrick, 90, 91, 113 Los Angeles District Attorney, 208
Kent, Sidney, 172 Los Angeles Jewish Women's Council, 164
Kenwith, Herbert, 311 Los Angeles Times: on Belle of the Nineties, 196; on Come
Keogh, Michael F., 141 On Up, 259; conflict with West, 300; on death of
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 278 West, 3 14; on Diamond Lil, 11 7; onyl Night With Mae
Klondike Annie, 209—219, 284 West, 3o2; on West and censorship, 170; on West as
Kobal, John, 3, 163 sex symbol, 269; on West's acting ability, 144—145;
Krafft-Ebing, Richard von, 82 on West's transformation, 256
Krauser, Chuck, 270, 273, 275. See also Novak, Paul Louis, Joe, 207
(Chuck Krauser) Love's Call, 71
Krutch, Joseph Wood, 249 "Lovin' Honey Man," 29
Lowell Sherman, 200
A La Broadway, 32, 33, 36 Lubin, Arthur, 286
La Mae, Trixie, 2 0 2 , 242 Lubitsch, Ernst, 200—201, 2 1 8 — 2 1 9
La Rue, Jack, 2 2 i Lula Belle, 7 2 , 7 3 , 108—109
Laemmle, Junior, 117
Landauer, Tillie (alias), 66 Macaulay (publisher), 125, 131, 135, 142
INDEX 369
Madden, Owney: attorneys of, 90; at Diamond Lil, 26 j; Mister Ed, 286-287, 289
financial backing, 72, 95, 99; and prizefighting, 207; monkey. See Boogey
protecting SEX, 80; Raft's relationship with, 81, Monroe, Marilyn, 269, 2 7 2 , 274
143; represented in Babe Gordon, i 27; at Tillie's Moon, Keith, 308
funeral, 11 8; Tillie's relationship with, 66—67, i ' J; Moore, Henry T., 260—261
West's campaign for release of, 181 — 182 Moore, Owen, 153
Madden, Tommy, 81 Morals Production Corporation, 72, 74, 84, 90
"Mademoiselle Fifi"(song), 2 2 7 Morgan, J. P., 79
"Mae West: Snow White Sex Queen Who Drifted" Morganstern, C. William, 40, 71, 89, 90, 92
(article by Johnson), 307 Morris, William, 144, 161, 187
"Mae West and Her Boys," 36 Morrison, Toni, 11 8, 1 2 2
"Mae West and the Girards," 3 6 , 3 7 mother. See West, Tillie (Matilda Delker, mother)
Mae West Syncopators, 42 Mother Superior, 86
Main, Marjorie, 9^ motherhood, 6j
Malachosky, Tim, 303, 305, 3 i 2 Motion Picture Daily, I J 2 , 191, 204, 232
Man Fook Low (restaurant), 2 8 j Motion Picture Herald, ijo, 172, 2 1 7 — 2 1 8 , 223
"The Mannikin" (skit), j j Motion Picture Magazine, 162, 163, 164, 167, 186, 19^,
Mansfield, Jayne, 274 206
Marie Antoinette (film), 233 Moulin Rouge Theater, 37
marriage: Burmeister's hopes for, 6j, 202; divorce, 51, Movie Classic, 144—145^
2 0 2 , 206; public discovery of marriage, 2 0 1 — 2 0 3 , "muscle dance," 91
206, 2 2 j , 240; Timony's hope for, j2; Wallace's Musgrove, Stanley, on Beverly, 288; challenges of work-
legal actions against West, 224, 241—242; West's ing with West, 302—303; on Lapin, 264; manage-
disdain for, 107, 157; West's marriage to Wallace, ment of West's career, 301, 305; polygraph tests,
3 0 -3i, j i 308; preparing for Welch's visit, 294; on West's
Marshall, Alan, 282 death, 3 14; on West's deterioration, 3 1 2 , 313;
Martin, Dean, 280 West's introduction to, 28 j; on West's mimicry of
Marx Brothers, 161-162, 186, 276 Same, 295; withholding articles on camp, 300
Masquers Club, 304 music. See also specific song titles: blues, 48, 148, i J7,
Masquers Tribute, 282 194, 278; jazz, 48; ragtime, 48, 194; recording
Mast, Jane (pseudonym), 7 1 , 8 2 career, 2 9 1 — 2 9 2
materialism in Diamond Lil, 106 My Little Chickadee, 237-240, 285
Matthews, Blayney, 208 "My Maricooch a Make a da Hoochy Macooch" (song),
Matthews, Henry, 135 291
Maugham, Somerset, 71 "My Old Flame" (song), 187, 314
Mayflower Hotel, 8 i "My Sweet Man" (song), 7 7
Mayo, Archie, 145, 146 Myra Breckinridge (film), 293—298
Mazurki, Mike, 186, 187-188
McCarey, Leo, 186, 189, 191, 196 Nathan, George Jean, 190
McCarthy, Charlie, 229-23 i Nathan, Paul, 2 8 j
McCarthyism, 2j£—2^6, 2^9 Nation, 249
McCoy, Van, 308 Nation, Carrie, 2 i i
McDaniel, Hattie, 174, 178 National Recovery Administration (NRA), i 71
McKee, "Holy Joe," 106 Navy, 73
McKee, Joseph V., 89 NBC (National Broadcasting Company), 2 3 1 — 2 3 2
McKinney, Nina Mae, 140 The Nest, 67-68
McLaughlin, Victor, 209, 2 1 3 , 2 2 0 Neutra, Richard, 268
"Memphis Blues" (song), 193 New Deal, 171
Merling, Howard, i 24 New Movie Magazine, 180—181
Meuchner, Jack, 6 j New Republic, 254
MGM, 240 New Statesman, 278
Miami Sun, 283 New Tribune, 3 2 — 3 3
Micheaux, Oscar, 136 New York American, I 2 1, 2 2 3
Miljan, John, 186 New York Amsterdam News, i 3 9
Miller, Joe, 2 2 3 New York City Police Department, 88
The Mimic World of 1921, j6, 57, 99 New York Clipper, 37, 38, 41, 44, 52, jj, ^9
miscegenation. See also race issues: in Babe Gordon, i 24, New York Daily News, 18, 162
1 3 3 , 1 34; in The Constant Sinner, 138, 141; in Frisco New York Dramatic Mirror, £o, j j
Kate, J 2 3; in I'm No Angel, i 79—1 80; in Klondike New York Evening Journal, 2 2 3
Annie, 2 10, 2 i j, 2 1 7 New York Evening Tribune, 100
370 INDEX
Neiv York Evening World, 3 3 Day's a Holiday, 229; Coin'to Town, 204; It Ain't No Sin,
New York Herald Tribune: on The Constant Sinner, 138; on i 86, 189; Lubitsch and, 2 19—2 20; management of
Every Day's a Holiday, 2 3 2; on I'm No Angel, 178, 18 i ; West's image, 200; negotiations with West, 145—146,
on SEX, 77, 80; on She Done Him Wrong, i 56 285; Night After Night, 142, 143, 14.9; Now I'm a Lady,
New York Journal, 138 198; purchase of Brentano script, 170; race issues,
New York Morning Telegraph, 27 18 6— 18 7; release of Go West Young Man, 223; Ruby Red,
New York Post, 113, 236 151—152; severed connections with Cohen, 234;
New York Roof Theater, 31—32 West's meeting with, 144; West's salary with, 206
New York Society for die Suppression of Vice Paramount Theater (New York City), 155, 180
(NYSSV), 79 parents. See West, Jack (John Junior, father); West,
New York Sun, 3 2 Tillie (Matilda Delker, mother)
New York Times: on Academy Awards appearance, 276; on "Parisienne," 3 8 , 3 9
Backlot USA appearance, 308; on Belle of the Nineties, Parrish, James Robert, 209
j 91; on Catherine Was Great, 249; on censorship of West Parsons, Louella, 218, 274
films, 195;on The Constant Sinner, 138, 140; on death Peiss, Kathy, 8-9
of West, 314; on Diamond Lil, i o 2; on Every Day's a Hol- Pendleton, Ella F., 116
iday, 2 3 2 , 234; on Frank Wallace scandal, 240; on Go Peppermint Lounge, 287
West Young Man, 2 2 2 , 223; on Gain'to Town, 204; on Perino's (restaurant), 285
Heat's On, 245, 246; on I'm No Angel, 180; on Klondike Perkins, Edward, 61
Annie, 217; Morganstern on SEX arrests, 89; on My Lit- Person to Person (TV show), 280
tle Chickadee, 239; on Myra Breckinridge, 297; on Night Personal Appearance, 219, 2 2 o
AfterNight, i 50; on The Pleasure Man, n^;onSEX, 75; "Personality" (dance music), 38
on Sextette, 311; on sexual issues, 267; on She Done Him pet monkey. See Boogey
Wrong, 156; on West and Fields, 238; on West's fame, Petrie, Walter, 262
200; on West's health, 263; on West's imprisonment, Petroff, Boris, 168, 174, 187, 190
94; on The Wicked Age, 96—97; on/I Winsome Widow, 37 "The Philadelphia Drag" (song), 32—33
New York Tribune, 42 photographs, 292
New Yorker, 75, 110, 249 Photoplay, 166, 206, 223
Nigger Heaven, i 3 2 "Pick 'Em Up and Lay 'Em Down" (song), 60
Night After Night, 142—150, 169 Pickford, Mary, 153, 172, 207, 264
A Night With Mae West (TV special), 302 Pittsburgh Courier, 139, 141, 245
"No One Does It Like That Dallas Man" (song), 173 Pittsburgh's Family Theater, 40, 71
"Nobody" (song), 22 "Players of Talent and Personality" (act), 54
Novak, Paul (Chuck Krauser): absence and return of, Playing in the Dark (Morrison), 118
287; correcting West, 307; fight with Hargitay, 275; The Pleasure Man: affair with Dinjo, 277; banned from
funeral service, 3 14; hiding West's health issues, the screen, 11 7; homosexuality and, 299—300; novel
289; polygraph test, 308; relationship with West, of, 305; obscenity trial, 1 1 9 — 1 2 1 ; production of,
273, 285, 305; in Sextette, 282; West crying in front 111 — 114; West's final performance, 304
of, 302-303; West's deterioration, 310, 313; West's Poitier, Sidney, 307
recruitment of, 270 Poland Spring Water, 3 i 2
Now I'm a Lady. See Gain' to Town Police Bugle, 115-116
Noy, Winifred, 91 Police Department (New York City), 88
Police Gazette, i o i , 115—116
Oboler, Arch, 230-231 Poll's Park, 84
O'Brien, Edwin, 260 Polly Tix in Washington, 161
"Oh What a Moanin' Man" (song), 55 Powers, James T., 119, 120
O'Neill, Barrie, 92 pregnancy, 3 i
O'Neill, Bobby, 36 Presley, Elvis, 285-286
O'Neill, Eugene, 60, 79, 136 primitivism, 131, 132—133, 160, 177, 191 — 192
O'Toole, Donald, 2 3 1 Prince of Wales Theatre, 260
Ottiano, Raphaela, 152—153 prizefighting, 163, 165
Owens, Harry, 135 Production Code: Belle of the Nineties and, 195, 204;
effects of, 2 3 3 ; Every Day's a Holiday and, 2 2 7; Go
The Pajama Game, 2 71 West Young Man and, 2 2 3 ; Hay's reaction to NRA
Palace Theater (Chicago), 44 (National Recovery Act), ! 71; It Ain't No Sin's viola-
Palmer, Bee, 53, 54 tion of, 189; Klondike Annie and, 210, 214; My Little
Parade, 116, 270 Chickadee and, 2 37; perceived evasions of, 184; Per-
Paramount Studios: bankruptcy, 154; Breen and, 210; cen- sonal Appearance and, 2 20; scope and enforcement of,
sorship and, 173; conflict with Hearst, 2 18; contract 152; West's violations of, 185
for West, i 50; emphasis on female fans, 164; Every Prohibition, 66, 82
INDEX 371
Proust, Marcel, 81 Ruby Award, 3 i 2

Prvor,
J '
Roger,
O '
i 86 The Ruby Ring, 57-58, 59, 61, 255
pseudonym, 71 Ruggles, Wesley, 1 7 3 , 174
Purple Gang, 145 Rush, Dana, 40
"Put the Loot in My Boot" (song), 291 Russell, Jane, 2 7 2
Putnam, George, 242 Russell, Kirk, 170, 1 7 2 , 181
Russell, Lillian, 8, 98, 104, 288
Queen of Sheba, 198
Quigley, Martin, 152, 172, 180 salary, 181, 206
Samson and Delilah, 205
Rabelais, 251-252 Sands, Mvrtle, 201
race issues. See also miscegenation: in Babe Gordon, i 24, "Santa, Come Up and See Me" (song), 291
1 2 5 — 1 2 6 , 127, i 34; in Belle of the Nineties, 192; in Sante, Luc, 5
The Constant Sinner, i 3 8; in "Frankie and Johnny," Same, Michael, 2 9 3 — 2 9 5 , 296—297
i 59— 160; in I'm No Angel, 178-180; racism of studio, Saturday Evening Post, 289
186—i 87; West's interest in ethnicity and blackness, Saturday Review, 266
97—98, 1 2 2 , 130, 178, 188, 193, 257, 2 7 8 , 306, 307 Savoy, Bert, 8 3
Radcliffe College, 116 sayings. See language
radio: ban lifted, 266; exiled from, 2 2 9 — 2 3 2 The Scarlet Empress, 2 2 6
Raft, George: on Archie Mayo, 146; moved to Hollywood, Schallart, Edward, 11 7
i 2 2 ; in Night After Night, 142, 143, 149; in praise of Schallert, Elza, 164
West, 149—150; relationship with West, Si—8l;m Sex- Schenck,Joseph, 45
tette, 309; won West doll as carnival prize, 161 Schiaparelli (French designer), 2 2 6
Rain, 7 1 , 7 3 Schleth, Harry O., 93
"Rap, Rap, Rap" (song), 38 Schloss, Norman P. S., 91
Rapper, Irving, 308, 309 Schultz, Dutch, 66
Ratoff, Gregory, 173, 244—245 Scott, Hazel, 245
Raye, Martha, 300 Scott, Randolph, 2 2 i
Razaf, Andy, 68 Scottsboro Nine, 142
Reagan, Ronald, 259 Screen Actors Guild, 256
Reed, Rex, 2 9 4 , 2 9 5 Seavers, Blanche, 305
religion: Catholic Church, 152, 170; Conference of Seldes, Gilbert, 100, 193—194, 196
Catholic Bishops, i 84; Klondike Annie and, 2 14—2 15; Selig, William, 120
religious leaders call for censorship, 79; spiritual- Selznick, David O., 235
ism, 242-244, 289, 303; West's interest in religious Sennwald, Andre, 195, 204—205
alternatives, 81, 118, 285; West's mass attendance, sex. See also feminism; gender issues: affairs, i 11; age
242; West's use of primitivism and, 192 and, 240—241; control and, 59; sexual exploitation of
residence, 124, 188, 207 women, 93—94; sexual liberation, 129; sexuality and
Reynolds, Hurt, 3 i 3 self-perception, 240—241; signification of, 167; West's
Ribonsky, Chester. See Krauser, Chuck ambiguity on, 2 3—24; West's conflict over men and
Richardson, Maurice, 278 homosexuality, 86—87; West's earlv interest in males, 26
Richman, Harry: in"Bits of Musical Comedy," 58—60; SEX: banned from the screen, 117; censorship issues,
breakup of partnership, 64; in The Ginger Box Revue, 79—8 i , 88—92; The Constant Sinner compared to,
60—61; on sex with West, 257; testimonial roast for, 285 i 38; critics of, 79—80; production of, 72-79; racial
Riva, Maria, 168—169 issues in, i 34—1 35; revivals of, 316; screen adapta-
Roberts, Steven, 317, 318 tion, 169; West's writing of The Albatross, 71
Robinson, Bill "Bojangles," 39, 64 Sex, Health, and ESP (West) (book), 306
"Rock Around the Clock" (song), 291 "Sex in the Theater" (article), i 16
Rockefeller, John D., 79 "Sextet" (male chorus), 2 34
Roland, Gilbert, 153 Sextette, 268, 2 8 2 — 2 8 4 , 2 93. 3°7~3' 2
Rolph, Jim, 182 "Shake That Thing" (song), 77
Rona's Reports, 300 Shallert, Edwin, 259
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 265 The Shanghai Gesture, 7 2 , 7 3
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 161 — 162, 239 Shayon, Robert Lewis, 116
Rosen, Albert H., 261—264 She Done Him Wrong: censorship issues, 171-172, 265,
Rosenthal, Herman, 18—19, 90 266, 304; compared to Diamond Lil, i 56-1 57; I'm
Roth, Samuel, 98 No Angel compared to, 180; Linder's claim on, 241;
Rothstein, Arnold, 66 production of, 152—160; released from ban, 304;
Roustabout (film), 285-286 sex depicted in, 167; success of, 164, 169; Taylor
Rover, Leo A., 141 — 142 casted in, 168; West's personal screening of, 313
372 INDEX
Shearer, Norma, 161, 2 3 3 Spiritualist Science Church of Hollywood, 243

Sheridan, Ann, i 54 Sri Deva Ram Sukul: as an entourage member, 246,
Sherman, Lowell, 151, 154 257; sought to treat Tillie, 116, 117; treating West,
"She's the Queen of the Beaches," 120 115,262
"Shimadonna," 54 "St. Louis Blues," 193
shimmy: on Broadway, 53; Clipper on West's, 55; critics Stalin, Joseph, 279
of, 56—57; last live performance, 304; as a major Standard Union, 138
inspiration for her style, 194, 278; on origins of, A Star Is Born (film), 233
306; West's first encounter with, 49 Starr, Ringo, 308
Showmen's League b of America,' Jci fa* Sterling, Robert,' 99
^^
Shubert, Lee and J. J.: business failure of, 140; discov- Stewart, Nicodemus, 2 2 1 , 222
ery of West, 71; involvement in Come On Up, 254, Struss, Karl, 186, 191, 226
259; involvement in Diamond Lil, 115; involvement Studio of Stage Dancing in New York City, 2 2
in Frisco Kate, i 23; involvement in SEX, 134—135; on Sullivan, Big Tim, 18—19, I o 6
Michael Todd, 247; objection to African-American Sullivan, Robert, 307, 308, 309, 3 11
actor, i 36 Sumner, John S.: on The Constant Sinner, 139; on Dia-
Shuffle Along, 72 mondLil, 104; on TheDrag, 83; on Samuel Roth, 98;
Sid Grauman's Chinese Theater, 174 on SEX, 79—80, 81, 82, 89
Sigma Chi, 304 Sunday, Billy, 155
signification, 14, 215. See also language; in Babe Gordon, Sunset Boulevard, 264
128, i 3 2 — i 33; in Belle of the Nineties, 191, 193; swagger, West's famous, 53, 245
Breen's attack on, 2 3 2 ; in Catherine Was Great, 2 5 2 ; Swanson, Gloria, 264, 285
on censorship, 196—197; in Diamond Lil, 104, 109, "Sweet Man" (song), 77
267, 281; in The Drag, 87; in Every Day's A Holiday, Sylvia, Madame, 224
2 2 9 ; as foundation for West's stage persona, 48; in Szatkus, Anna, 206
I'm No Angel, 180; in Klondike Annie, 2 1 1 , 2 1 3 ,
214— 2 15; in My Little Chickadee, 239—240; power of, Tamm, E. A., 208
2 8 1 , 3 17—3 18; proficiency at, 58; in recording Tammany Hall, 51, 66, 89, 106, 113
industry, 291, 2 9 2; in Sextette, 2 8 3; in She Done Him Tampa Tribune, 18 i
Wrong, 156; swagger, 53, 245; West's role as signi- Tanguay, Eva: popularity and success of, 17—1 8; West
fier, 265 compared to, 41, 42; West's imitation of, 18, 23,
Silverman, Sime, 36 36—37, 104; on West's marriage, 202
Simone, Peter, 309 Tatro, Julia, 44
Simpson, O. J., 292 Taylor, Libby: as an entourage member, 168; in I'm No
Sing Sing prison, 45, 66, 67 Angel, 174, i 75, 178; in It Ain't No Sin, 186; in She
Singer Sewing Machine Company, 302 Done Him Wrong, 155; successful career of, 194—195
Singer's Midgets, 45 Taylor, Mae M., 243
Sinnott, James, 84, 85, 88, 11 2 television: Gilligan's Island, 289; It's Not History, It's Her-
Skelton, Red, 280 story (TV series), 268-269; Mister Ed, 286-287,
Skipworth, Alison, 147 289; My Little Chickadee released for, 285; West's dis-
Skolsky, Sidney: as an extra in I'm No Angel, 174; on like of censorship on, 2 8 2
avoidance of objectionable content, 185; on cast Temple, Shirley, 161, 196
members' relationships, 234; at seance, 303; on Ten Nights in a Barroom (play), 21
standing ovation for West, 304; on Timony's rela- "That's All Brother" (song), 196
tionship with West, 169; on West's Africander- Thaw, Evelyn Nesbitt, 40
itage," 69; on West's appeal, 206; on West's break Thaw, Harry, 40
with Paramount, 220; on West's outsider status, 175 Theatre Magazine, 54, 57
Smith, Al, 80, 90, 92 "They Are Irish" (song), 32—33
Smith, Bessie, 68, 69, 161 "They Call Me Sister Honkey Tonk" (song), 175
Smith, Father J. A., 195 Thomas, Kevin, 2 9 1 , 293
Smith, Trixie, 135 Thompson, Girard, 65
Smith, Willie "the Lion," 67 Thurber, James, 214, 217
Snelson, Floyd, 139, 141 Thurman, Wallace, 131 — 132, 136
Sobel, Bernard, i i 8 "Tiger Love" (song), 29
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 2 2 Time, 203, 240, 245
"Some of These Days" (song), 39 Timony, James A.: accompanying West to California,
Sometime (Hammerstein), 52-55 144; accused of buying testimony, 183; as an
"Sorry I Made You Cry" (song), 60 entourage member, 234, 246; arranging for Sri Deva
Southern, Jack, 183 Ram Sukul, 115; attempts to dominate West, 127,
Spielberg, Harold, 1 9 , 9 0 , 9 1 145, i 74; attending mass with West, 242531 Belle
INDEX 373
debut, 190; career guidance, i 22; death, 269; dis- Box, 61; on Go West Young Man, 2 2 3 ; on Gain' to
cussed in autobiography, 2 7 7 ; health issues, 261, Town, 204; on Hays Office actions, 171; on Heat's
268; involvement in Come On Up, 254; involvement On, 245; on Klondike Annie, 2 i 7; on "Mae West and
in Diamond Lil, 99, 100, I f ) , 261; involvement in Company" act, 64; on "Mae West and the Girards,"
Coin'to Town, 199; involvement in SEX, 7 1 — 7 2 , 89; 36; on My Little Chickadee, 2 3 9 ; Night After Night
involvement in The Constant Sinner, i 36; involvement review, i 50; on The Pleasure Man, i 11; on Richman
in The Drag, 82, 84, 85; involvement in The Pleasure as partner, 59; on Samson and Delilah, 205; on SEX,
Man, i l l , 1 1 2 ; involvement in The Ruby Ring, 57, 75, 78, 92; on Sextette, 2 8 3 , 308, 3 1 1 ; on She Done
$8; involvement in The Wicked Age, 95; Lopez com- Him Wrong, i 54; She Done Him Wrong review, 155,
pared to, 2 7 3 ; managing business affairs for West, i 56; on Sometime, {2;on Violetta, 3 j ; o n W e s t
206—207, 2 I 9 > 268; objection to African-American appearing under assumed name, 47; on West as
actor, i 36; in obscenity court case, 89, 92; oversight sex symbol, 2 7 2 ; on West's appearance at a
of West's divorce, 51, 2 0 2 , 206; Pleasure Alan trial, Sing Sing benefit, 45; on West's contract with
i 2o—i 2 i ; possessiveness of West, £9—60; relation- Universal Pictures, 44; on West's maturation,
ship with West family, 50, 56, 66; residence in Cali- 39; on West's shimmy, 54, 55, 57; on The
fornia, 168; romantic interest in West, 51—52, 169; Wicked Age, 96
tension in relationship with West, 111; at Tillie's vaudeville: Keith Circuit, 3 i ; Orpheum circuit, 47;
death, 117; transcription of West's plays, 57; West's tours, 40; West's return to, 36—40; White Rats
confidence in, 50—51; West's financial support of, Union, 44-45
187; on West's physique, 165 Velez, Lupc, 163
Tinney, Frank, 33, 37, 42 Venus de Milo, 165
Todd, Michael, 246, 247 Vera Violetta, 33-35, 36
Tompkins Square Park, 5 Vidal, Gore, 293
Toombs, Rudolph, i 35 Vietnam War, 287, 298
Treshatny, Serge, 50,85 The Virgin Man, 81, 88-89
"The Trial of Shimmy Mae" (act), 56 Vogue, 165, 166
tricksterism: admired by public, 167; appeal to Depres- Voiler, Harry, 145, 150—151, 168, 182, 183
sion-era audiences, 162; in Babe Gordon, 134; in
Catherine Was Great, 250-251; during Cold War cli- Wales Padlock Law, 90, 92, 1 2 1
mate, 256; in Diamond Lil, 106, 111, 267; in Go West walk, West's famous, 53, 245
Young Man, 2 22; in Coin' to Town, 206; in her resi- Walker, Aida Overton, 39
dence, i 88; in The Hussy, 62; in I'm No Angel, i 80; Walker, George, 13, i 8, 39
influence of coon-shouting years on, 23; in Klondike Walker, Jimmy, 80, 89, 90, i 14
Annie, 2 1 4 — 2 1 5 , 2 17; mutability of identity, 299, "Walkin" the Dog" (skit), 46
317-318; in My Little Chickadee, 239; in Queen of Wallace, Frank: legal actions against West, 224,
Sheba, 19 8; in recording industry, 2 9 2 ; i n The Ruby 241-242; public discovery of marriage to, 2 0 1 - 2 0 3 ,
Ring, 57—58; in She Done Him Wrong, 158—159; of 206, 2 2 5 , 240; West's marriage to, 3 0 — 3 1 , 51;
W C. Fields, 238 West's partnership with, 28-30
"Troubled Waters," 187, 193 Wallace, James, 90, 91, 1 1 3 , 119
Tucker, Lorenzo, 136, 139, 141, 142, 168 Waller, Fats, 69
Tucker, Sophie, 2 2 , 39, 238 Walsh, Raoul, 209
tutor, 2o Ward, Carol, 3 i 2
Twentieth Century—Fox, 2 9 3 , 298 wardrobe. See also Head, Edith; attempt to stay contem-
porary, 2 8 6 ; in Catherine Was Great, 246; corset
Ulrich, Karl Heinrich, 82 usage, 115, 165, 263; costumes, 166; during court
Uncle Tom's Cabin, 2 i case, 260; in court room, 1 8 2 ; designed by Travis
Universal Pictures, 44 Banton, 173, 199; early emphasis on elegance, 38,
Universal Studios, i 17, 2 3 6 , 240 64; fashion, 165—166; figure, 76, 164, 165,
University of California, Los Angeles, 304 2 2 3 — 2 2 4 ; headdress, 64; by Schiaparelli, 2 2 6 ;
University of Southern California, 285 Victorian corsets, 165; West's personal oversight
of, 153-154
Valentino, Rudolph, 81 Warner Bros., 152, 293
Vallee, Rudy, 158-159 Watkins, Mel, 14
Van, Billy, 262 Watson, Milton, 234
Van Vechten, Carl, 102-103, ' 3 2 > ' 3 3 Way Out West (album), 2 9 1 , 2 9 2
Vanity Fair, 1 4 8 , 1 9 0 , 1 9 3 Wayburn, Ned, 22, 3 1 , 32, 55
Variety: on Babe Gordon, i 35; on Belle of the Nineties, 191; Weismuller, Johnny, 163
Bohm's advertisement in, 38; on burlesque, 29; on Welch, Raquel, 293-294, 296, 297
Come On Up, 259; on Diamond Lil, 1 0 0 , 1 0 2 , Welfare Island (penitentiary), 93, 94, 95
103—104, 116; on The Drag, 83, 85, 88; on The Ginger Wellesley College, i 16
374 INDEX
West, Beverly (Mildred, sister): arrest of, 85; at Belle The Whirl of the Town, j6
debut, 190; difficulties of, 287—288; marriages, jo, Whitcomb, Ian, 291
187; mental deterioration, 312; move to Los Ange- White, Stanford, 40
les, 187; performing with West, 46—47; at Pleasure White Rats, 44—44, 4 1 , 6 7
Man trial, 121; polygraph test, 308; restaurant man- whiteness, 178, 188, 193, 307
agement, 207; at West's release from jail, 94; on "Who's Afraid of Big Bad Mae" (article), 18 i
West's ribald nature, 17 The Wicked Age, 94—98, 271
West, Edith, 2 j Wild Christmas (album), 291
West, Emma, 6 Wilder, Billy, 264
West, Jack (John Junior, father): at Belle debut, 190; William Morris Agency, 143, 144, 293
death, 199; employment, ^6; family crypt, 289; liv- Williams, Bert: influence on Diamond Lil, 104; influence
ing with West, : 88; relationship with daughter, on West, i 2-1 5-, 16, i 8, 38, 2 2 9 , 278, 304; sense of
11-i 2; represented in Babe Gordon, 126; represented humor, 94; shimmy performance, 49; West's imper-
in The Hussy, 63; sexual abuse, 24— 2 c; at West's personations of, 2 2 , 23, 194
formances, 17; on West's writing, 61; youdi, j—7 Wilson, Earl, 272
West, John Edwin (brother): at Belle debut, 190; birth, Winchell, Walter, 102
12; death, 289; employment, 56; Novak's conflict Wingate, James, 141, 144, 172, 174
with, 287; at Pleasure Man trial, i 2 i ; residing with Winslow, Thyra Samter, 11 o— 111
West, i 88; West's dependence upon, 168 A Winsome Widow, 37—38
West, John (grandfather), 3—4 Winter, Alice Ames, 195
West, Katie (sister), 9 Wise, Robert, 301
West, Mae. Note: As West is the subject of the book, The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West (book), 292
references to her work and life are throughout Wood, Etta, 30
index. Please check under specific topics; birth, i o; World War I, 47-48,40
death, 314; left-handed, 19; name, 10 World War II, 2 3 9 , 267
West, Mary Jane (grandmother), 4—j, 6, 2 j Wright, Chalky, 207-208, 242, 274-, 276, 278
West, Tillie (Matilda Delker, mother): death, 117, 118; Wynn, Ed, 42, 43—44
at Diamond Lil debut, i o 2; early relationship with
West, 11 — 1 2 ; family crypt, 289, 314; health issues, "The Yankee Boys Have Made a Wild Woman Out Of
114, 116; influence on West, 2 j8; involvement in Me" (song), 44
West's career, 16—17, 22, 24, 56, 61, 7 1-72, Yary, Ron, 292
114—11 j; management of Harding Hotel, 66; mar- Yeaman, Elizabeth, 74
riage and family life, 9—10, i 2, 2 j, 6j—66; nostalgia Yoga Institute of America, 11 4
of, 98; represented in autobiography, 277; repre- Young, Stark, 109—1 10, 160, 241
sented in The Hussy, 63; Timony's relationship with,
jo, j6; West's perceptions of, i 26; at West's release Zaring, E. Robb, 204
from jail, 94; on West's romantic relationships, 26, Ziegfeld, Florenz, 3 1—32
30, 44, 4^-46, 47; youth, 7-9 Ziegfeld's Theater, 32, 37
"What Do You Have to Do?" (song), J2 Zukor, Adolph: censorship issues, 141, 142, 201;
"When a Man Loves a Woman" (song), 291 Cohen's tension with, 234; reluctance to cast
"When My Marie Sings Chidee Bidee Bee" West, 143; on West's rescue of Paramount, 169;
(song), 29 on West's role in Night After Night, 144, 146

(Jill Watts) Mae West An Icon in Black and White (BookFi)

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Mae

Oxford New York

Copyright © 2001 by Jill Watts

First published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001

Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Printed in the United States of America

Four Speaking of the Influence 70

Eight If You Can't Go Straight, 170

Nine Naturally I Disagree 19 8

Archival Sources and Abbreviations 3 19

Bibliographical Essay 3^7

Campbell. I owe much thanks to Margaret Washington for her support

Additionally, I am grateful to my former editors Liz McGuire and T. Susan

Quoted material authored by Mae West is reprinted by permission from the

They Were Too Smart

Mrs. Crane Brittany: Have your ancestors ever been traced?

commonly rebelled against their parents' standards and experimented with

American trickster-heroes whose double-voicedness operates as a playful but

popular. This process of cultural appropriation and white society's struggle to

Baby Mae epitomized Victorian innocence and sentimentality. Tillie had

well as dabbling in betting and prostitution, looked upon Rosenthal as a fa-

immutability of race. As literary critic Susan Gubar argues, in many in-

friendships—they were not expedient. "Girls seemed a foolish investment of

The Way She Does It

A fessional stage. Her break came when William Hogan, small-

lace seems uncharacteristic. As her mother knew, marriage could severely

performers, Deslys immediately clashed with a then unknown blackface

the catcalls, and the implacable applause of football night." He especially

explanation, but her sudden departure coincided with a significant change in

African-American performers had broken through to become stars. Tap

tween theater management and performers. White Rats activists were

"Mother pointed out other married couples to me," Mae remembered,

growth and change for the African-American community. African Ameri-

The shimmy idea seems made to order for an entertainer of

y the time Mae West resurfaced in New York in the spring of

After a slow year, Mae's situation began to brighten. In February 1921,

skits, deleted those dependent on Hussey, including "The Trial of Shimmy

West definitely got noticed. Variety acknowledged the crowd's enthusiastic

world,' where male-female relations were based on material exchange.o

Nona succeeds because she understands how to manipulate men to get

is not certain. However,' theyJ had longO maintained ties to organized

which offered some of Harlem's finest musical entertainment, ' including O

performances by "the Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith. In the early

ture with contempt. (Throughout the 19205, whites continued to appropri-

Speaking of the Influence

Speaking of the influence of the Jook, I noted that Mae West

O traffic. In a rush, she ordered her driver to take a shortcut past

for a scarlet-woman vehicle, something like Somerset Maugham's Rain, he

had composed a story of a Montreal strumpet who makes a living by seduc-

been a third-rate director, he understood West's strongest asset, a style that

ends up in Trinidad, where a young millionaire, Jimmy Stanton, mistakes

philosophy, for with this cut-rate, off-Broadway production, West fleeced

In addition to recycling themes from The Hussy, West experimented with

"You'll oget it,' you'll

I save it up : since the Lord knows when,

With SEX's debut, Sumner moved quickly. In April, he paid a visit to

wrongdoing." Others found Mae equally compelling. One critic, complain-

most celebrated entertainers were female impersonators Julian Eltinge and

Strangle me, strangle me! You Judge Kingsbury—the great supporter of

is the worst possible play I have ever heard of contemplating an invasion of

decency in films. Around the country, lawmakers introduced censorship leg-